Since the Jin State would also participate in the attack on Yanjing, which undoubtedly violated the alliance agreement signed by the two sides before, Zhao Ji was afraid that the Jin State would seize the Yanjing Mansion first, so he ordered the Eastern and Western Route Armies to attack the Liao State at the same time on the first day of the eighth month.

At this time, the 120,000 Western Road Northern Expedition led by Xin Xingzong was stationed in Zhendingfu and Dingzhou and Baozhou, and Tong Guan also rushed to Baozhou, where the main force was stationed, Xin Xingzong was just Tong Guan's puppet, he was named the commander of the capital, but all the military and political power was in the hands of Tong Guan.

Xin Xingzong knew this very well in his heart, he was a general raised by Tong Guan, and he was deeply obedient to Tong Guan in his bones, not only that, but he saw with his own eyes the fate of Liu Yanqing, who refused to obey Tong Guan's military orders, was stripped of all his positions, and took full responsibility for the fiasco of the First Northern Expedition.

With the lessons of the past, Xin Xingzong did not dare to go beyond the rules at all, and asked Tong Guan for instructions no matter how big or small.

"Tomorrow is the first day of the eighth month, do you want us to symbolically send troops to Yizhou, lest the Taiwei be impeached by those who have a heart in the court?"

Xin Xingzong said that the people with a heart refer to Gao Yu and Tan Zhen, this is an open secret in the court, everyone knows that these two people and Tong Guan have become mortal enemies, Tong Guan snorted, "There is no need to do such meaningless things, I am not allowed to send troops tomorrow, I will explain to the Son of Heaven." ”

The two rode into the barracks and walked slowly along the horse road, and Xin Xingzong said cautiously: "I got the news that the army of the Seed Master Dao has begun to move north......

Before he finished speaking, he found that Tong Guan's face had become extremely ugly, and he was so frightened that he didn't dare to say anything, how could Tong Guan not know that the Seed Master Dao had completed the whole army, and the premise of the success of the whole army was that his henchman Qiu Zhaohe was killed by the Seed Master Dao.

This made Tong Guan hate the seed master to the bone, no one dared to pretend to Tong Guan, Xin Xingzong didn't know the depth of the nonsense, touched Tong Guan's scales, and almost made Tong Guan angry.

Fortunately, Tong Guan still needed to use Xin Xingzong, so he restrained the anger in his heart and asked coldly, "I want to know about Gao Shixuan's situation." ”

In order to disrupt the Northern Expedition of the Seed Master Road, Tong Guan did everything possible to stumble on the Seed Master Road, Qiu Zhaohe was killed, and the plot to make the Seed Master Road unable to integrate the Jingdong Road Xiang Army was declared a failure, and Tong Guan pinned his hopes on another trick, that is, Gao Shixuan, the former general of the Seed Master Road.

Gao Shixuan was originally one of the five tiger generals of the Seed Army, Yao Pingzhong, Wang Yuan, Gao Shixuan, Qu Ke, and Yang Keshi, but after the Western Xia Campaign, the Seed Master Dao was called into Beijing to take refuge in Tong Guan because of his high merits, and Yao Pingzhong and Gao Shixuan turned to Tong Guan.

A few days ago, because the integration of the Jingdong Road Xiang Army was unsuccessful, he ordered the right army Li Yanqing and the former army Gao Shixuan to lead the army first, Tong Guan secretly sent a letter to Gao Shixuan, asking him to transfer to Xiongzhou, this time Tong Guan undoubtedly succeeded, Gao Shixuan really led the army to Xiongzhou, thus destroying the battle plan of the Seed Division, making Li Yanqing of Bazhou a lone army.

"Captain Qiyu, Gao Shixuan's current garrison is in Rong County, Xiongzhou, and he also sent someone to deliver the letter this morning."

"Where is the faith?"

"Taiwei, it's a message, that is, he has been stationed in Rong County."

"Is the messenger still there?" Tong Guan asked again.

"I guess I haven't left yet."

"Let him come to see me in the big tent!"

Tong Guan turned over and dismounted, strode into the big tent of the Chinese army and sat down, and after a while, a soldier was led into the big tent.

"Pawn, meet the captain!" The soldier knelt down and kowtowed.

"Let me ask you, is there any military rations in Rong County?"

"There is a lot of military rations, which has solved our food shortage crisis."

Tong Guan took a sip of tea and asked, "I heard that you robbed Leshou County, is it true?" ”

"Back to the Taiwei, we only had one day of dry food left in Leshou County, Hejian Prefecture, and there was obviously food in the official warehouse in the county seat, but the county order refused to take it out, saying that it was necessary to transfer the consent of the envoy, General Gao was angry and robbed the official warehouse, the situation was a little chaotic at that time, and some nearby shops were also robbed."

Tong Guan snorted coldly, "You are too bold, the grain in the official warehouse is a tax of the imperial court, and you actually dare to rob it, and you even dare to rob the private house, did the master Dao make you do this?" ”

The soldier trembled with fright, and said in a trembling voice: "Villain.... It's just a pawn, and I don't know about the above things. ”

"Humph! Forgive me for not knowing, you go back and tell Gao Shixuan, if the imperial court sends someone to investigate, it will be said that it is allowed by the way of the planter to grab grain, do you understand what I mean? ”

"The villain understands."

"In addition, let Gao Shixuan be stationed in Rong County, and without my order, you are not allowed to act rashly."

"The villain remembered."

Tong Guan ordered the left and right to reward the messenger soldiers with five taels of silver, and sent the messenger soldiers away, at this time, Tong Guan asked Xin Xingzong to find him, and said to him: "You can lead a large army to garrison the border line, ready to attack at any time, my army order is coming, you can immediately kill Yi County." ”

"Obey the order!"

The reason why Tong Guan did not move was that he mainly wanted to see how Li Yanqing faced Guo Yaoshi's victorious army, and it was best to fight with each other to make him, a fisherman, benefit.

.........

In the night, eight hundred cavalry under the leadership of Yang Zaixing all the way to the north, the whirring night wind blows from the ears, in the night of the black rumbling, the sound of horses' hooves is like thunder, rolling up the dust, two watches, the cavalry arrived at Yongqing County about three miles south of Yongqing County, Yang Zaixing waved his hand to stop the cavalry forward, he looked at Yongqing County from afar, only to see that the beacon lit during the day was not extinguished, still burning.

Yang Zaixing couldn't help but snort coldly, "Be cocooned and self-bound!" ”

They passed a beacon along the way, and the beacon was also lit by wolf smoke during the day, and the beacon fire has not been extinguished until now, which caused the false news to cover up the true information, and they killed all the way, and the beacon on the way could not inform Yongqing County.

"Where is Yan Qing?" Yang Zaixing solemnly ordered.

Yan Qing was stunned for a moment, he didn't react, half a sound, he suddenly understood, this was calling himself, he hurriedly urged the horse to step forward and hugged his fists and said: "Humble duty!" ”

"I'll give you two earth-shattering thunderbolts, and blow open the city gate for me in half an hour, no mistake!"

"Obey the order!"

Yan Qing scolded secretly in his heart, he had always been used to being free, and he was a little unaccustomed to this condescending tone.

"The first team comes with me!"

Yan Qing turned over and dismounted, and ran towards the county seat with thirty scouts, Yang Zaixing pointed to the woods in front of him, "The rest of the army will wait in the woods with me!" ”

They slowed down their horses and walked towards the woods not far away, this forest was quite large, stretching to the south of the city two miles away, Yang Zaixing reined in his horses, and looked at Yan Qing and his party who were cautiously approaching the city.

Yongqing County is a small city, there is no moat, the city is relatively old, perhaps because it has been in a strategic advantage over the Great Song Dynasty for a hundred years, resulting in the Khitan people do not pay much attention to defense construction, the city wall of Yongqing County has at least more than a hundred years of history, and has never been repaired, a hundred years of wind and rain erosion, so that the city wall rammed with soil has long been dilapidated.

There are not many defenders in the city, only 500 people, all of whom are Khitan soldiers, and of course Guo Yaoshi will not let the Khitans participate in his plan to surrender the Song Dynasty, so he sent them to guard Yongqing County, which can be regarded as eliminating this tumor in his army.

At this time, just after the two watches, it was the time when the people and soldiers in the city were sleeping deeply, and there were scattered soldiers patrolling at the head of the city, but the place with the largest number of people was above the south city gate, there were three groups of soldiers, and more than 30 people were patrolling.

"General, why don't we go to the west and try it?"

A soldier whispered to Yan Qing, "There don't seem to be any soldiers patrolling over there. ”

"Don't go!"

Yan Qing thought of Yang Zaixing's serious expression, and he was also angry in his heart, "Lao Tzu will blow up its south side, and I don't believe that I can't kill it!" ”

However, Yang Zaixing gave them half an hour, this time is relatively generous, Yan Qing led a few soldiers all the way to run, and soon touched the city wall fifty steps away, the city wall is inserted with torches, and the probe can see the situation under the city.

A soldier was about to run forward, but was pulled by Yan Qing, "Be careful!" ”

Only then did several soldiers realize that there was a trench in front of them, which was full of sharpened wooden stakes, and if they fell, they would definitely die, and several soldiers were so frightened that their faces turned white.

"Follow me!"

Yan Qing led a few soldiers to the east, and in a moment came to the front of the city gate, which was part of the official road, and there was a two-zhang wide bridge that could directly cross the ditch.

"You go tell Commander Yang and let him pay attention to this trench."

Yan Qing ordered a soldier, and the soldier galloped away, and Yan Qing led the other two to cross the trench, prostrate on the ground, and slowly crawl forward.

After a while, Yan Qing and the three of them sat down against the city gate, the city gate was slightly deeper than the city wall, so that there was a two-foot-wide eaves above their heads to cover them, and the soldiers on the city head could not see them, Yan Qing took out a leather rope maza, this kind of maza is composed of four wooden sticks, which can usually be harvested into a bunch, and when needed, it becomes a high stool, they put the horse against the city gate, and carefully put the forty pounds of earth-shaking thunder on the horse.

Although Yang Zaixing gave him two Heaven-Shaking Thunderbolts, Yan Qing knew the power of this thing, one was enough to break the city, and two were too heavy to carry them, which would affect their actions.

Yan Qing glanced back at the woods in the distance, estimating that the soldiers he had sent back had informed Yang Zaixing, so he nodded to the three of them, and they stretched out a cloth to cover it, so that even if the fire fold was lit, the fire could not be seen on it.

Yan Qing blew the fire fold and lit the fire rope, and the fire rope sneered and burned, "Run!" Yan Qing shouted, the three of them turned around and ran away, at this time, the defenders at the head of the city suddenly saw them, shouted together and fired arrows at them, Yan Qing and the three were wearing iron armor, a shield on their backs, the arrows were shot on the shield, and when they ran out of more than seventy steps, one of his subordinates suddenly screamed, and fell down, and he was shot in the calf by an arrow.

Yan Qing and another soldier hurriedly picked him up and continued to run, about one hundred and twenty paces, Yan Qing shouted, "Lie down!" ”

The four of them threw themselves on the ground together, covered their ears, and held their heads tightly, at this time, there was an earth-shattering explosion at the city gate, the whole earth was trembling, the dust was flying, the black smoke was straight into the sky, and the war horses hiding in the woods were also startled and screamed, and in a moment, the smoke and dust dispersed, and I saw that the city wall had collapsed for a while, and only half of the city gate was left hanging on the edge of the city, revealing a big black hole.

Yang Zaixing was so excited that he shouted: "Follow me into the city!" ”

Yang Zaixing took the lead, and the eight hundred cavalry rushed out of the woods with a shout, and swept along the official road to the city gate.