It snowed heavily all night, and when the sky dawned, the entire Linhuang Mansion was covered in silver.

The Song army approached the city, making the little prince Yelü Hongji who stayed in the capital panic, and Zhang Jian, the father of Shang who stayed in Beijing, hurriedly summoned the Chinese Wu in Beijing to discuss the strategy of resisting the enemy, Zhang Jian was more panicked than all the people, because he knew that Su Jin, the leader of the army, was the mastermind of the battle of Helan Mountain in Liaoxia two years ago, and the situation of that fiasco was still vivid, and how many times in his dreams he could still remember the tragic situation of almost the entire army that day.

Empress Renyi, Yelu Hongji, Zhang Jian and hundreds of civil and military officials listed in the hall of the west building of the imperial capital, and discussed how to defend against the siege of the Song army, and took stock of the belongings in Beijing.

The Northeast Unification Army Division and the Tokyo Unification Army Division originally transferred 200,000 troops to defend Shangjing, but Yelu Chongyuan ordered 150,000 of them to be pulled together to exterminate Su Jin's army, so that there were only 60,000 defenders in Shangjing.

"Uncle Huang is really too disagreeable, and he transferred all the soldiers and horses to Beijing, but what? The army of the Song Dynasty is still approaching the city, I really don't know what his intentions are. Yelu Hongji's immature voice carried a murderous aura.

Everyone can hear that the little prince has something to say, but no one dares to speak, this matter is better to intervene less, the emperor set up Chongyuan as the emperor's younger brother, that is, the future throne will be passed on to Yelu Chongyuan, as the eldest prince, Yelu Hongji will naturally have thoughts in his heart, but now is not the time to fight for this, keeping Shangjing is the top priority.

Empress Renyi came out to speak: "I don't have to say anything, the Song army outside the city is only eighty or ninety-thousand, and there is a big gap with the rumored 200,000, it can be seen that the Song people must be divided, and His Royal Highness the imperial brother must be encircled and suppressed by another Song army, don't be too panicked now, I go to Beijing with enough grain and grass, and the city defense is strong, just hold on for a few days, and the imperial brother will lead the troops back to help after hearing the news." ”

Zhang Jian nodded and said: "The queen's analysis is that the emperor's younger brother is probably already on the way back to help, and what needs to be discussed at present is the matter of city defense, and the defense of 60,000 defenders should not be a problem, but recently, the Song army's combat strength has increased sharply, and the use of troops is treacherous, so it is still necessary to be extremely cautious." ”

"Old Father, your worries are too unnecessary." Yelu Kanrong, the privy deputy envoy of the Northern Court, said: "The sentry came to report, the Song army outside the city is a light cavalry rushing from the north, and they do not carry siege equipment, and they do not carry much grain and grass, this heavy snow is a disaster for the Song people, in my opinion, within three days, the Song people will collapse themselves, how have the Song soldiers seen the severe cold of my northern country?" ”

Everyone nodded one after another and said, "What Lord Yelu said is, don't look at the arrogance of the Song people in the past few months, in the face of the cold winter, I am afraid that they will all become soft-footed crabs." ”

"Yes, they entered our Daliao to fight in the summer, and now it is a harsh winter, I'm afraid they don't even have cotton clothes, we don't even need to fight them, they will collapse themselves."

“……”

Zhang Jian was silent, and said in his heart: I hope what you said is true, but if you know what kind of ruthless character Su Jin is facing the enemy general, you will be cautious in your words and deeds.

Empress Renyi saw that Zhang Jian seemed to be worried, so she asked: "Father Shang can say it clearly if he has something to say, this is a big plan, it is better for all adults to express their opinions directly, the emperor is on the battlefield in the south, and the safety of my mother and son is all related to your lords, please think carefully." ”

Zhang Jian saluted with his crossed arms and said: "Queen Mother, what a few adults said is right, the situation is indeed favorable to me, but the Song army outside the city is not an ordinary Song army, the person who led this defender is Su Jin, he is the initiator of the battle of Helan Mountain that year, it was he who single-handedly led to the fiasco of my Daliao, the war of the year is still in front of me, and the old man is deeply impressed by the war; This person has become treacherous, when my Great Liao envoy sent an envoy to Song Guo to talk about increasing the currency, it was also this Su Jin who stirred up the situation, and you must have not forgotten it. ”

"It turned out to be him, this cunning thief, the Song people's treacherous scheme was also from him, very good, he actually sent it to the door, this time the new account and the old account will be counted together." Yelu Kanrong said angrily.

Zhang Jian said: "It is because it is him, so it must not be careless, the minister suggested recruiting villagers in the city to help defend the city, the biggest problem at present is that the south of Hancheng is the weakest place to defend, because of the regulation constraints, Hanchen does not have invincible buildings and other defensive measures, the city wall is nearly a zhang shorter than the imperial city, if the Song army attacks Hancheng, I am afraid that it will not be able to stop, most of the army is naturally stationed in the imperial city, and the defense of Hancheng can only rely on a small number of regular troops and recruited villagers. ”

Empress Renyi frowned and nodded: "Father Shang is reasonable, it is a good way to recruit villagers to help, and in addition, I have to send someone to the east to report to the imperial brother, asking him to speed up the defense, and the longer he can hold on, the more beneficial it will be to me." ”

Everyone reached a consensus and immediately launched an operation to recruit villagers.

The northern imperial city of Linhuang Mansion is the residence of the Khitan people, and the southern Han city is the gathering place of the Han people, the nationality determines the status, and the Han people are second-class citizens in the Liao State, and they are also under guard, so the city wall of the Han City is not established according to the standard of defense at all, only two zhang high, and there are no defense facilities such as enemy towers and high stacks, but I did not expect it to become a hidden danger today.

……

The Song army camp was camped under the northern slope of the city, due to the need for light clothing, the army carried very little materials, and there were seven or eight people squeezed into a military tent, even so, the first night of camping, the severe cold still showed his power, and when he got up in the morning, the dripping water turned into ice, and the soldiers' clothes and boots and armor were frozen, and the thin clothes could not stop the biting cold at all.

Su Jin knew that he couldn't delay any longer, every day of delay, morale would drop for a day, and the number of people who would freeze to death and frostbite would increase day by day, and the only option now was to attack the city immediately.

However, the problem is obvious, there is no siege equipment, and second, the city wall of Linhuangfu is more than three zhang high, the city defense is strong, and there are many arrow towers, I don't know how to start, even if I want to attack, there is no condition for a strong attack.

After getting up early, Su Jin took hundreds of cavalry and several main generals to walk around Linhuang Mansion in the snow, looking for loopholes in the city, and after returning at noon, Su Jin immediately held a pre-war meeting to discuss how to attack the city.

The big tent lit up the oil basin for the first time, Su Jin ordered someone to take the mud and build a model of Linhuang Mansion on the inside of the tent, Pan Jiang pinched the dry branch and pointed to the model, and explained the results of the morning personal detection to everyone one by one.

"Ladies and gentlemen, please see, the Liao capital is different from my Great Song City, which is also divided into two parts, my Great Song Dynasty is the construction of the inner and outer cities, while the Liao people are connected to the two cities, and the city wall is shared in the middle, I will call it the north and south cities; According to the height of the city wall and the tightness of the defense, it is obvious that the north city wall we are facing is both high and thick, with more than 100 enemy towers on the city, and the defense is extremely tight; The southern city is not only two zhang high, but also the defense is much looser, according to which it can be inferred that the northern city is the important place of the Liao imperial palace, and the southern city is just equivalent to the outer city of my Great Song Dynasty and other constructions. ”

A general said: "The last general has a brother of his own family who has been here on business, according to him, the northern city is called the imperial city, and the southern city is called Hancheng, which means that the Khitan and the Han people divide the city and branch it. ”

Su Jin nodded and said: "That's it, it seems that the Liao people are to guard against the Han people, but in this way, it can be seen that the weakness of Linhuang Mansion is in Hancheng in the south, and we can only start from Hancheng." ”

Jingtai said: "Dashuai, since the Liao people have arranged the pattern in this way, I estimate that even if Hancheng is breached, I am afraid that it will not be able to directly enter the imperial city, and capturing Hancheng is actually equivalent to not capturing Linhuang Mansion." ”

Su Jin said: "That's true, but after the capture of Seoul, the situation will be more favorable to me, at least we have a foothold, we will not camp in the snow, and we can also search for a lot of useful materials in Seoul, it is better than being frozen in the field empty-handed." ”

Everyone nodded and said, "That's true, it's a good place to stay." ”

Su Jin said with a smile: "The disadvantage is that capturing Beicheng is equivalent to taking Shangjing, and capturing Hancheng does not mean that Shangjing is broken, and we see their weaknesses, how can they not know that although Hancheng is weakly defended, we may still pay a great price, so we have to measure whether this price is worth it; If it takes tens of thousands of horses to capture Seoul, then I might as well make a desperate bet and attack the Imperial City directly. ”

Jing Tai said: "What the marshal said is, but we need to consider how to capture Seoul at the least cost." ”

Su Jin said: "Yes, this is our first priority. ”