The battle was not worth mentioning at all, under the crushing of 90,000 cavalry, Huaizhou City was ravaged like an undefended girl, and the 8,000 defenders had been strangled into corpses before they could make a symbolic resistance.

The remnants of the four cities were quickly cleared, and the streets were filled with the figure of the Song army riding horses, and the people of Huaizhou hid in their homes in a hurry, secretly praying for the blessing of immortality and not being slaughtered by the Song people.

Of course, Su Jin will not slaughter the city, in the pre-war meeting last night, Su Jin asked not to massacres civilians as much as possible, except for the soldiers of the Liao army, the enemy army with weapons in their hands is a threat, and the people will not be punished as long as they do not resist.

In the afternoon, more than 100,000 infantry and baggage arrived in Huaizhou City, but the battle had already ended for a long time, the entire Huaizhou City had fallen into the hands of the Song army, and the city lord Xiao Yuanshan and a cadre of subordinate officials were all captured, and they didn't even have time to abandon the city and escape.

Su Jin's primary concern is the armory and warehouse, when he saw that the Huaizhou military warehouse was slowly full of grain, Su Jin's heart was put into his stomach, and the 200,000 army went deep thousands of miles away, although there was food in the city, but it could not be transported, so he could only adopt the strategy of fighting to feed the war, and the soldiers were about to eat the food share for the fifteenth day, and the grain and forage were replenished after taking Huaizhou City.

There is nothing suitable in the armory, Huaizhou is not a military town, the garrison is also very loose, and there is no armor and weapons at all, but there are hundreds of saddles, Su Jin naturally accepted them unceremoniously, although the horses that were plundered could not fight, but they could still be used as horses; Su Jin originally thought that he would get a large number of war horses by capturing Huaizhou, but in fact, there were only 3,000 war horses of the regular army available, and nothing else.

After a little rest, that night, Su Jin convened the generals to discuss the next goal, in the hall of the City Lord's Mansion in Xiao Yuanshan, the topographic map was built again, and the generals were accustomed to this kind of intuitive map, and they all held long poles around the topographic map and pointed at it.

"Dashuai, our goal is to take Shangjing directly, and the next target is undoubtedly Gyeongju (PS: Gyeongju in Liao, not Gyeongju on Huanqing Road), one hundred and eighty miles northeast of Gyeongju is Shangjing, and it is recommended that we attack Gyeongju with all our might." Pan Jiang pulls the gravel on the topographic map, and the bamboo pole strikes soundly on the tea cup representing Gyeongju.

Su Jin thought for a while and said: "Gyeongju is indeed the gateway to Beijing, but there is Taihang Mountain between it and Huaizhou, there may be a road to pass, but it will definitely affect the speed of the march, if there is no road to go, it will be troublesome." ”

Pan Jiang scratched his head and said: "This is a problem, the city lord said, this is a hundred miles in the north of the mountains of the Taihang Mountains, the problem of marching is indeed a problem, does the marshal have other ideas?" ”

Su Jin said: "Our goal is to go to Beijing, yes, but our ultimate strategic goal is to force the Liao army to come back with all the reinforcements, stirring up the chaos inside them as much as possible, plus considering the factor of cavalry marching, I suggest that we first go east to Raozhou, and then go north to attack Zuzhou, if Qingzhou is the southwest gateway of Shangjing, Zuzhou is the southeast gateway of Shangjing, so that you can set off more momentum, and you can also avoid the unfavorable terrain of Taihang Mountain." ”

The generals were silent, and Jingtai frowned and said: "Boss, I don't think it's appropriate to do this." ”

Su Jin said: "Let's hear it." ”

Jingtai said: "First, the news of taking Huaizhou can be spread in a few days, and we will soon be intensively concerned by the defenders of the cities of Zhongjing Road and Shangjing Road, although the domestic troops of Liao State are empty, but the number of soldiers and horses gathered in each city must be quite a lot, as long as there are 50,000 or 60,000 people gathered in Raozhou to defend the city, we will take a lot of time to attack the city, which is contrary to the original intention of the commander; Attacking fortifications is not our strong point, because we don't have large siege equipment, and even if we do, the casualties will be very large, isn't it a waste of strength? ”

Su Jin pinched his chin and thought for a while: "Go on, there must be one and two, how about the other?" ”

Jingtai said: "The second is the most important point, we go east to make a bend to the north, it is bound to delay a lot of time, during this period, the Liao people can completely mobilize the troops and horses of the southwest Goryeo border and the subject country of Jin to come to the rescue, it seems to be very far, but don't forget, they are all cavalry, and they will rush to guard Shangjing day and night within ten days, and at that time, we will be completely passive and forced to fight with the main force of the enemy, which is a big taboo." ”

The generals nodded one after another, Jingtai's analysis was very reasonable, and it was all pertinent.

Su Jin stretched out his hand to signal everyone to be quiet, and said with a smile: "Generals, General Jingtai's words are reasonable, but this is a cautious word, don't you feel a little out of place compared to the overall strategy of this battle?" ”

The generals were puzzled, and Su Jin explained: "Our 200,000 troops go deep alone, which is a risky strategy in itself, and this matter is the biggest adventure in itself. In addition, I want to say that things are not so bad, the situation that General Jingtai said may or may not happen at all, where our goal is, the enemy army has no way of knowing, how can they bet on Raozhou to hold on? Take 10,000 steps back and say that their bet is successful, won't we be flexible? Zhongjing Province Qianzhou, Huizhou, Xingzhongfu, and Dadingfu are all within the scope of our attack, once targeted, we randomly wave our troops to the south to attack these cities that have been undefended, although we can't eliminate their troops, but we can still do things that burn grain and grass and destroy the city, and the Liao people will not allow our army to come and go in its hinterland, which will also have the effect of reducing pressure on the front line. ”

Jingtai smashed his fists and sighed: "Yes, what the marshal said is reasonable, we are all focused on Shangjing, but we have limited our actions." ”

Su Jindao: "Shangjing is still our preferred goal, because it is the first of the five capitals of Liao, and it is of great significance to take Shangjing, which can greatly dampen the morale of the Liao people, but everything depends on the situation, and it cannot be sticky; As for what you said about the Liao people mobilizing the defenders of the Jin Kingdom and Goryeo to guard Beijing, I think it is unlikely, first, there are not many troops there, and second, are the Liao people not afraid that the Jin and Goryeo people will take the opportunity to make trouble? So the biggest possibility is to give up the attack on the Song Dynasty and the army to come back and eat us. ”

Pan Jiang said: "Dashuai, you give the order, where is the next target?" ”

Su Jin looked at the map and thought for a while: "In view of General Jingtai's reminder, it is necessary for us to compress the defenders of Zhongjing Province and prevent them from betting on Raozhou, after all, Raozhou and Gyeongju choose one of the two, and the probability of winning the bet is still quite high, I decided to go south to attack Gaozhou, approaching Zhongjing Dading Mansion, creating the illusion of attacking Dading, and take them to mobilize other state capitals to shrink Dading defense, and then suddenly turn north to attack Raozhou, lose Zhongjing Road reinforcements, Raozhou is at your fingertips." ”

……

On the third day of the first month of June, 90,000 cavalry raided Gaozhou City, Zhongjing Road, because Gaozhou had received the news, so it was ready to defend, but the number of defenders was too small, and only 10,000 defenders could not stop the attack of 90,000 people, and the Gaozhou city wall was low, it was not enough to defend at all, after resisting for two hours, the Gaozhou city lord led his troops to abandon the city and fled, and Gaozhou was broken in the afternoon.

Su Jin ordered people to burn down the houses, grain and grass in Gaozhou City, drove the people out of the city and fled south, and sent cavalry to make a gesture of attacking Dading Mansion in the south, and a large number of refugees poured into Dading Mansion, and at the same time brought the news that the Song army was about to attack Dading.

The 30,000 horses that had been sent out to support Raozhou were quickly withdrawn, not to mention, but also mobilized a small number of defenders in Enzhou, Huizhou, Xingzhongfu, Yuzhou and other places in the southeast to support Dading at full speed.

After waiting for a few days, but did not see the arrival of the Song army, the fox was suspicious, but the news of the loss of Raozhou came, it turned out that the cavalry of the Song army had already turned to the northeast on the way to Dading, and cooperated with the infantry who arrived in Raozhou earlier to take Raozhou without much effort, and annihilated 12,000 defenders of Raozhou.

In just a few days, the Song army descended from the sky like a divine soldier, connecting three cities within the Liao State, making a miasma, and the grass and trees were all soldiers.