After the monarchs and ministers of the Liao State figured out the route and purpose of the attack of Su Jin's army, instead of feeling relieved, they became more worried, and it was obvious that the destination of the army was Shangjing, which was clearly to attack their own nest.

Shangjing Road is currently Xingzong's eldest son Yelu Hongji stayed, Yelu Hongji is only seventeen years old, and he has not experienced a major battle at all, the reason why he stays in charge is because Shangjing is far away from the inland There is no danger at all, and secondly, there is a group of old ministers who stay behind to help.

But now, the 200,000 troops of the Song State rushed to Shangjing, and Yelu Hongji and those old ministers were no opponents at all, and Shangjing was in danger.

"Your Majesty, now we have to consider returning to the army to destroy Su Jin's army, and Shangjing must not be lost." Xiao Hui said.

Liaoxingzong Yelu Zongzhen's mind flashed the terrifying picture of Shangjing City broken, the queen mother, the princess and the princess being robbed and humiliated by the Song people, and couldn't help but get a layer of goosebumps.

"No, Brother Huang, don't go back to the army." Yelu Chongyuan said loudly.

Yelu Zongzhen frowned and said, "What if you don't go back to the army and go to Beijing?" Do you sit back and watch my capital be destroyed? There are many royal relatives there, and the queen mother, queen and prince are all there. ”

Yelu Chongyuan said: "My Da Liao army is pressing, and the Song people are tired of coping, the reason why Su Jin Xiao'er was sent to sneak into my Da Liao to make trouble is to deceive us into defending back, how can we be tricked?" ”

Yelu Zong said: "What should I do if I go to Beijing?" ”

Yelu Chongyuan said: "Immediately mobilize the defenders of the eastern Goryeo border and the Jin border to defend, these two are my Daliao vassals, there is no need for heavy military surveillance, and there are nearly 200,000 combined troops in the two places, although most of them are recruits, but it should not be a big problem to stick to the Linhuang Mansion of Shangjing Road, Su Jin's army is far away, as long as they are dragged down, they will also worry about being surrounded and annihilated, and they will never fall in love with war; And our army stepped up its attack, but we want to see who copied whose capital first. ”

Xiao Hui hurriedly said: "No, the Jurchen Goryeo people all had stupidity in the early years, so the imperial court was heavily stationed in prison, if it is transferred to Linhuang Mansion, what should I do if there is a disaster in two places?" ”

Yelu Chongyuan sneered: "Looking ahead and looking back, it's you Xiao Hui, you just changed your name to Xiao Turtle, let me ask you, if we retreat and the Song people cover up and pursue, what should we do?" If Shangjing is broken, we will take Bianliang as the capital, they will take our family parents, we will take their family parents, and no one will suffer. ”

Xiao Hui said angrily: "Brother Huang is respectful, you scold me Xiao Hui is a turtle, you need to know that I am your mother's clansman, so what are you?" ”

Yelu Zongzhen listened to Xiao Hui and Yelu Chongyuan arguing, he was so annoyed that he waved his hand and shouted: "Shut up, is there any decency in the noise?" In front of so many of your generals, are you not ashamed? ”

Xiao Hui and Yelu Chongyuan sneered, glared at each other angrily and turned back to their seats, Yelu Zongzhen rubbed his forehead for a long time before saying: "I decided to take a compromise strategy, in view of the favorable situation on the frontal battlefield, we must not give up the great opportunity, but Shangjing Dao Linhuang Mansion cannot be lost, that is where my Great Liao Dragon Vein is located, and if I lose the morale of Linhuang Mansion and the people's heart, we will lose it; I decided to dispatch 50,000 cavalry of the Left Route Army to make a rapid detour to reinforce, and transferred a total of 100,000 border troops from the two Goryeo Jurchen places to Shangjing, and ordered the state capital along the way to make every effort to hold back the Song army, so as to buy time for the Huifang army, and the 150,000 army would be able to hold on to Linhuang Mansion without any major problems; Spread my holy decree, and ordered all the concubines, princesses, princesses and princesses in the palace to withdraw to the northern Darugu tribe to avoid trouble; Our army canceled the rest and immediately launched a fierce attack, they forced us to return to the defense, and we also forced Su Jin's 200,000 men back. ”

Xiao Hui hurriedly stepped forward and said: "Your Majesty, don't be like this, this is not the best strategy, there are gaps everywhere in tinkering, and there are a lot of hidden worries." ”

"Needless to say, I have already decided, you don't have to stay in Daizhou, you will each return to the camp overnight and start an attack immediately." Yelu Zongzhen waved his hand and returned to the inner tent to rest.

……

After the breakthrough of Raozhou, the passage to Linhuang Mansion in Shangjing has been opened, and there is only one city on the road, which is Zuzhou, which is three hundred miles away; Su Jin still adopted the strategy of scorched earth, although he did not kill the people, but burned down the residences, destroyed the city defense, the food could be taken away, and the food that could not be brought was set on fire, and the people fled one after another, and the Song Bureau neither killed nor chased, let them drift, Su Jin had to do so, only the greater the momentum, the more serious the destruction, in order to arouse enough attention from the Liao army, so he did not feel particularly guilty.

At this time, the displaced people will not be frozen to death, and the grain, cattle and sheep in the people's homes will not be robbed by the Song army, which is already the limit of what Su Jin can do.

In three days, Raozhou has become a ruin, the attack on Raozhou lost 3,000 soldiers, 200,000 troops after a reduction along the way and 190,000, which has made Su Jin feel extremely satisfied, attacked three cities, annihilated 20,000 enemies, the price paid is not big, and the number of war horses has increased by more than 20,000, the number of horses used to travel has increased by 40,000, and this army has 150,000 people who do not need to walk on their feet.

After two days and two nights of rapid marching, the army arrived outside the city of Zuzhou, the last barrier of Linhuang Mansion; To Su Jin's surprise, he thought that there was no strong city in Liao, but Zuzhou was a veritable strong city, although there were no high mountains and dangerous valleys near the left, but the mountains and forests were dense, the terrain was complex, and there were many lakes, which was very unfavorable to the attack; Zuzhou is adjacent to a mountain, a river and two buildings, and it cannot be attacked on both sides, and the only places that can be attacked are east and north, but these two walls are high and thick, and they are completely different from other state capitals.

Su Jin scratched his head, he didn't know, this ancestral state has a great origin, the Liao royal family Yelu clan originally originated here, it is the place where the Yelu clan lived, the Liao Taizu Yelu Abaoji also lived here before he took the throne, and later after the unification of the north to establish the Great Liao, because his ancestors, great-grandfathers, grandfathers, and fathers were born here, so this place was named Zuzhou.

It is conceivable that this is the birthplace of the dragon vein of the Yelu royal family, and it is also the gateway of Linhuang Mansion. There are not many soldiers and horses in Zuzhou, only 5,000 regular troops and 10,000 servants, but these 15,000 people occupy the advantage of the location and defend the two city walls, not to mention Su Jin, an army that has no siege means.

The army arrived for two days, did not come up with a good means of attack, Pan Jiang tentatively used a simple ladder to force the attack, but soon found that this was impossible, the casualties were simply too great, there were hundreds of giant bed crossbows on the city wall, and the crossbow arrows with thick arms were fired one after another, and more than 1,000 people were killed in a round outside three hundred steps, and the bluffing Pan Jiang hurriedly stopped, good guy, if this is a strong attack, I am afraid that it will not work if I don't die 350,000, and Su Jin will never agree to use this kind of crowd tactics, because the more people are reduced, the more difficult it will be, The army has become a rogue, how can it play the role of a-stirring stick?

Someone suggested attacking with fire, and the army carried fire oil, and rockets were not a problem, but Su Jin observed the terrain and immediately rejected this proposal, the construction of the city in Zuzhou seemed to be prepared for fire attack, except for the houses made of bluestone, there were few trees in the city, which was a huge contrast compared to the lush scene of the woods outside the city; Moreover, the southern city wall was actually built on water, and half of the large lake outside the south gate was in the city and half outside the city.

After this proposal was rejected, there was no good solution, Su Jin's anxious heart was irritable, he couldn't afford it, he could imagine that there must be several large armies gathered in Shangjing from all directions, and if it was delayed, the Liao people would pull a few thousand here and ten thousand there, and they could also form a huge defensive army, and at that time, he could only leave Shangjing Road in a gloomy manner.

On the evening of the third day, Su Jin rode a horse and took the four people of the dynasty Ma Han, Zhang Long, and Zhao Hu to take a walk outside the city of Zuzhou, and traveled along the embankment of the big lake, Su Jin suddenly found an interesting phenomenon, the terrain is generally high in the west and low in the east, high in the north, high in the south, and low in the south, but here it is a little different, several streams by the lake actually flow into the lake from south to north, it may be that the summer rain is abundant, this lake is full of water. Full embankment, only half a foot away from the top of the embankment.

Su Jin's heart moved, he shook the reins and walked along the south embankment, looked left and right, galloped until the sun set, crisscrossed dozens of miles, and suddenly looked up to the sky and laughed.

Wang Dynasty, Ma Han and others followed behind, and the second monk was puzzled. I thought that the prince was crazy and wanted to come forward to comfort him, but I heard Su Jin say loudly: "God help me, Zuzhou will be broken." ”