With a heavy face, he looked at the generals sitting in the council hall.

"My lord, it doesn't seem appropriate to fight the Song army now. Now Baitu Town and Xiao County are still in our hands, and the Song army has not come to the city. ”

Su Shi Lie Zhining said: "Baitu Town and Xiao County are not in danger at all, it is a matter of time before they are breached, and by that time, the counties and towns outside Xuzhou City will be occupied by the Song army, and the Russians will be surrounded by the Song army in Xuzhou City, unable to move." Instead of sitting on the throne and waiting to be killed, it is better to fight to the death with the Song army as soon as possible, as long as Li Xianzhong's army is defeated, you can change the current passive situation. ”

Pu Luhun said: "My lord, our army is now losing one after another, and its morale is low. At this time, the decisive battle with the Song army may be disadvantageous to our army. It's better to wait for the Song army to capture Xiao County and Baitu Town, and we will wait for work in Xuzhou and fight with the Song army back to the city, wouldn't it be inconvenient? ”

Su Shi Lie Zhining shook his head and said: "If the Song army captures Baitu Town and Xiao County, it will never be fighting a decisive battle with our army, they will only garrison around, cut off our army's grain route, and trap our army in Xuzhou." Or lure the main force of our army out of the city and take advantage of the situation to capture Xuzhou. ”

Qingshannu said: "Since this is the case, then we might as well defend Xuzhou." The city wall of Xuzhou is tall, we still have 50,000 or 60,000 horses, and there is enough grain and grass for more than a month, which is enough to hold Xuzhou and wait for rescue. I believe that the emperor will definitely send troops to help, and at that time, our army should be combined with the outside and can defeat the Song army in one fell swoop. ”

Fu Shi Lie Zhining was unhappy in his heart, he ignored Wan Yan Yong's opinion when he was in the capital, and vigorously opposed Wan Yan Changzhi's lure of the enemy to go deeper, and waited for work at ease. Immediately ordered to go to Xuzhou and fight a decisive battle with the Song army. Now he wants to stay in Xuzhou and ask Zhongdu for help, how can this be done. However, Su Shi Lie Zhining also knew that because of the successive defeats, Long Qi was the two armies of Yang Yan and Yu Gongliang and their strong combat effectiveness, which made the generals afraid of the Song army. In such an unfavorable situation, they would rather adopt a conservative and prudent method than risk a decisive battle with the Song army.

Su Shi Lie Zhining sneered and looked around at the generals present. All the generals were a little hairy at his gaze, and for a while, there was silence in the big conference hall.

Su Shi Lie Zhining said sharply: "Are you still our Jurchen warriors? When Ben Shuai left the division, you were not the way you are now, or because you fought a few defeats by chance, you were scared to fight? ”

These words were suddenly spoken, and all the generals present were red-faced and ashamed.

Su Shi Lie Zhining continued: "Although we have lost a few battles, our strength is still there, and there are still fifty or sixty thousand elite soldiers at this time, why don't we dare to fight to the death with the Song army." When did our Dajin army be so frightened that they hid in the city and did not dare to fight. The military prestige of Emperor Taizu and Emperor Taizong was engraved there. ”

When everyone heard this, they couldn't help but put their heads even lowered.

At this time, Pu Luhui stood up with a "huh": "My lord, you are right, we are all Jurchen warriors, how can we be greedy and afraid of death, so we are afraid of the Song army." ”

Qingshannu also said: "My lord is right, I am willing to fight to the death with the Song army as a vanguard, so that they can also know the power of our Dajin sergeant." ”

At this time, the other generals also expressed their willingness to fight a decisive battle with the Song army, and the atmosphere in the entire hall changed.

Seeing that the morale of the generals of his Sicheng Gong was boosted, Su Shi Lie Zhining was overjoyed, and said: "Everyone, please don't forget, we still have 5,000 Tiefutu and have not been in the battle, just to wait until now to fight a decisive battle with the Song army. ”

As soon as the Tiefutu was mentioned, all the generals suddenly became more confident, and the five thousand Tiefutu did have the ability to change the outcome of a battle.

On the 15th of the 3rd, Su Shi Lie Zhining personally led 30,000 horses and brave generals Qingshannu, Puluhun, Huliyuan, Bailiunu and others to advance to Baitu Town, and converged with the defenders of Baitu Town, Shulie and Li Xianzhong for a decisive battle, and sent the general Shi Mo Weiming to lead 5,000 horsemen and 2,000 Tiefutu to Luliang Town to meet Yang Yan's Xuanfeng army.

Two flying eagles, one black and one white, continue to rise and fall in the air as if they are about to cut through the sky, and from time to time they make a sharp eagle chirping.

Yang Yan restrained Hai Dongqing, turned his head and asked Wei Chang: "How is it, have you found anything?" ”

Wei Chang pointed to the flying eagle in the air and said, "In the left front, about fifty miles or so, there may be a Jin army. ”

Yang Yan nodded, turned around and called the soldiers of the three Yin camps and said, "You three go to the left front to take a look, but be careful of your whereabouts, if you find the Jin Army, come back immediately and report to me." ”

The three soldiers agreed, urged their horses, and ran to the left front.

This time, Yang Yan led the army back to Xuzhou, and also considered that Su Shi Lie Zhining must also have thought that Wei Sheng in Xiapi would send troops to support Xuzhou, and there might be an army to intercept or ambush halfway. Therefore, Yang Yan specially asked Wei Sheng to ask Wei Chang to accompany him, hoping to use the Flying Eagle to detect the enemy, and also wanted to try how effective the Flying Eagle could be. Wei Sheng naturally readily agreed, of course he knew that although Yang Yan was only a commander now, as the grandson and quasi-concubine of Yang Yizhong, the king of Tong'an County, he had a bright future. I also hope that Wei Chang, who is not high or low, will follow Yang Yan, and maybe he will be able to mix up a Mingtang.

Sure enough, the Song and Jin armies were separated by more than 100 miles, and the flying eagle discovered the whereabouts of the Jin army. However, the Flying Eagle can only detect the general position of the enemy, but cannot give the position of the enemy. This is also one of the insurmountable weaknesses of the Flying Eagle.

Through the understanding of the past few days, Yang Yan also found that the flying eagle probed many weaknesses of the enemy, such as the eagle could not tell whether it saw the Jin army or the Song army or ordinary people. It is also impossible to give the number of enemy troops seen, so although there have been people training flying eagles to detect enemies since the Tang Dynasty, flying eagles have never been officially used by the army.

However, it is not terrible for Yang Yan to have weaknesses, the important thing is to take a fancy to the speed of the flying eagle and the distance to explore, and the others can be supplemented by dismantling.

Sure enough, half an hour later, a soldier Pegasus came back and reported that Yang Yan had found the Jin army thirty miles in front of the left, with a total of about 5,000 people, all of them cavalry, and 2,000 of them were Tiefutu. The soldiers of the three Yin Battalions were all experienced in the demolition, and after discovering the Jin Army, they sent one person back to report, and the other two were still monitoring the movements of the Jin Army.

Yang Yan nodded, looked at the banner, and ordered the horses to turn eastward first, and then advance towards the Jin army in the direction of the tailwind.

With Li Xianzhong's order, the banner continued to be dispatched, and the Song army quickly and orderly assembled on the battlefield. And about 800 steps away, the Jin army was also constantly injected into the battlefield under the dispatch of Sushi Lie Zhining.

The formation of the Song army was a shape in which the Chinese army was slightly protruding and the sides were slightly retracted, and the purpose was to prevent the cavalry of the Jin army from rounding up from the two wings.

There were 8,000 men on the left and right armies, led by Zhang Zhu and Wang Shilong respectively, and consisted of 3,000 cavalry, 3,000 infantry troops, 1,000 crossbowmen, and 1,000 archers. The cavalry was on the outside, the infantry on the inside, and the crossbowmen were arranged after the infantry.

The Chinese army consisted of five small phalanxes, divided into left front, right front, left rear, right rear, and center. The five phalanxes in front of the left, front right, rear left and back on the right were led by four generals, Shi Jun, Wei Yongshou, Wang Jin, and Liu Yuan, and each phalanx had 5,000 people, all of whom were composed of 3,000 infantry troops, 1,000 crossbowmen, and 1,000 archers, and they were also arranged after the infantry according to the crossbowmen. The small phalanx in the middle consisted of two thousand cavalry, three thousand infantry, one thousand crossbowmen, and one thousand archers. and set up a two-zhang tall building car, Li Xianzhong and Cheng Min commanded on the building car and took charge of the overall situation.

The total strength of the Song army exceeded 40,000, of which there were only 8,000 cavalry, but there were 12,000 crossbowmen, and like the previous Song army, the crossbowmen were the main force of the Song army.

Almost at the same time that the Song army lined up the formation, the Jin army also completed the formation. The stone Lie Zhining discharged a goose-shaped array. The horizontal column was much wider than the Song army's formation. There were 7,000 men on each flank, all of them were one-color cavalry, divided into Shulie and Puluxu. Stretched forward, like the wings of a wild goose.

The Chinese army is divided into three layers, the first layer is 6,000 cavalry, horizontally arranged, the second layer is 9,000 infantry troops, divided into three groups, each group of 3,000 people, horizontally arranged into three phalanxes, 3,000 Tiefutu cavalry divided into two teams, sandwiched in the phalanx, hidden behind the cavalry in the front row, can suddenly appear at any time and kill the opponent by surprise. The command vehicle of Sushi Lie Zhining was in the phalanx in the middle of the second layer. Behind the palace were 2,000 cavalry and 5,000 infantry as a reserve. It is conceivable that various contingencies can be made according to the situation of the Song army during the battle.

The Jin army was still the main force of the cavalry as before, with a total of 25,000 cavalry, more than half of the total number of the Jin army.

And when the two sides were arranging the formation, they advanced nearly a hundred steps forward intentionally or unintentionally. Now the two armies are less than 700 paces apart, and a big battle is about to break out.