At the same time, with the assistance of the Taiyuan government, the Jingzhao army recruited 5,000 carpenters and blacksmiths from the city to assist the army in completing the installation and commissioning of various heavy defensive weapons.

At the head of the north city, Li Yanqing inspected the installation of trebuchets and other defensive weapons accompanied by more than a dozen generals, the city was full of busy craftsmen and soldiers, dozens of trebuchets that had not yet gone to the city were lined up in the open space of Cangcheng, on the road, seven or eight healthy oxen were pulling in front, and dozens of soldiers were struggling to push behind, and a huge trebuchet was slowly driving towards the city head on the slope.

A huge trebuchet has stood at the top of the city, craftsmen are laying short wooden stakes at the head of the city, fixing the bottom of the trebuchet to three wooden stakes, and several craftsmen are installing throwing rods, which are six feet long like long arms, ready to wave at any time.

"The belt on the trebuchet has not been checked?" Li Yanqing asked a craftsman.

The craftsman nodded, "It's all been checked, and the slightly loosened areas have been re-tied to ensure that there are no problems."

Li Yanqing turned back to Wang Gui and said: "These trebuchets have been assembled many years ago, and some of the tied belts are old, if they are not replaced in time, it may cause the trebuchet to fall apart, especially when throwing earth-shaking thunder, if the trebuchet is damaged and the throwing fails, it will cause very serious consequences, so I require all trebuchets to be carefully checked, and it is best to add binding, and we must resolutely prevent accidents." ”

Wang Gui bowed down and said: "I understand that I will definitely ask the craftsman to re-tie all the trebuchets to ensure that there will be no accidents!" ”

At this moment, there was a rapid sound of horses' hooves in the distance, Li Yanqing walked to the battlements and looked north, only to see several cavalry galloping from a distance, and in a moment they rushed to the city gate, and the cavalry shouted: "We are from Yanmen Pass, there is an urgent military situation!" ”

Li Yanqing hurriedly ordered left and right, "Bring them up!" ”

Not long after, several soldiers who delivered the letter were brought to the city, and the leading soldiers knelt down on one knee and submitted a military report, "Qiyu is under control, this is an emergency battle report at Yanmen Pass!" ”

Li Yanqing asked, "Who is the master of Yanmen Pass?" ”

"It's General Chen Su!"

Li Yanqing nodded, this Chen Su he knows, quite a master of the Tao, is a general with both civil and military skills, he opened the military newspaper and read it, as he expected, Jin Guo has launched an attack on Yanmen Pass, seeing the end, Li Yanqing frowned slightly, Chen Su is worried that the Jin soldiers will be killed from Yizhou along the Flying Fox, hoping to increase the number of troops in the bottle pass.

Li Yanqing pondered for a moment and ordered left and right: "Reward each of them with ten taels of silver!" ”

Several soldiers who sent the letter thanked them repeatedly, and Li Yanqing said to them again: "You immediately return to Yanmen Pass and tell General Chen that the 20,000 troops withdrawn from the Western Xia border are rushing to Daizhou, so that he does not need to be in a hurry, and the reinforcements will arrive soon." ”

"Obey!"

Several soldiers went down to the city, and Li Yanqing didn't care about patrolling the city for the time being, so he turned around and went to the military office.

After a while, Li Yanqing returned to the military office, he came directly to the Intelligence Department of the Eastern Hospital, and the Intelligence Department was also busy, at present, the city was investigating the spies of the Jin State, and all suspicious people of unknown origin had to be further investigated, and more than a dozen people from the Intelligence Department had almost not slept all night, and everyone had red eyes.

Li Yanqing came directly to the lobby, Zhang Hu was discussing something with several officials, and when he saw Li Yanqing coming in, he hurriedly stepped forward and saluted, "See the capital system!" ”

"How's it going, have you learned anything from the investigation?"

Zhang Hu nodded, "Fifteen Western Xia spies who have slipped through the net have been caught, according to their confessions, there are about ten spies in the city, they are working for Western Xia and Jin at the same time, and more than a hundred carrier pigeons and seven eagle letters have been seized, and the brothers are still searching for spies and carrier pigeons." ”

"Well done!"

Li Yanqing praised and said, "Is there any news from Hebei?" ”

"Just now came news from Zhending Mansion that tens of thousands of Jin soldiers are besieging Zhending County, and Liu Guangshi is leading 30,000 reinforcements to kill Zhending County."

In order to know the situation in Hebei in a timely manner, Li Yanqing sent more than a dozen detectives from the Intelligence Department to various parts of Hebei to set up five intelligence points to send major military information to the Taiyuan side at any time.

Li Yanqing turned to the table, staring at a huge map of Hebei and Hedong Road on the table, Zhang Hu asked in a low voice, "What's wrong?" ”

"I just received the battle report of Yanmen Pass, Yanmen Pass guard Chen Su is very worried that Hebei Jin Bing will kill from Feihu Cheng into Dai County, Yanmen Pass will be attacked by the enemy, and he can't hold it, he hopes that I can immediately send troops to support Bottle Pass."

"This General Chen is rightly worried, it is indeed very possible, it is summer, the Flying Fox is not blocked by ice and snow, and it is very convenient to go from Yizhou to Daizhou."

Li Yanqing shook his head, "Chen Su reminded me, in fact, I'm not worried about Daizhou, I'm worried about Jingcheng." ”

Zhang Hu was taken aback, "Is the commander of the capital worried that the Jin soldiers will be killed from Jingcheng?" ”

Li Yanqing sighed lowly, "It is inconvenient for the Flying Fox to take the cavalry, Yizhou has been lost for nearly ten days, if the Jin soldiers borrowed the Flying Fox Wing, they should have come over a long time ago, and there is no movement on the Flying Fox side so far, I suspect that the goal of the Jin soldiers is to go to Jingcheng, after all, the strategic significance of Jingcheng is greater, and it can take the baggage and cavalry, and from the Jin soldiers to focus on attacking Zhending Mansion, it is likely to be what I say." ”

"Then you can send troops to guard the Jingcheng Pass now."

Zhang Hu immediately suggested: "Holding the Jingcheng Pass can prevent the enemy from entering Taiyuan Mansion from Jingcheng." ”

Li Yanqing stared at the map and was silent, Zhang Hu said that the Jingcheng Pass is the pass on the east side of the river, and the pass on the Hebei side is the Tumen Pass, the characteristics of these two passes are from the Jingcheng external defense, if you want to block the Jin soldiers to kill the Jingcheng to the east of the river, you should go to guard the Tumen Pass on the north side of the river, but now it is estimated that it is too late, and the Tumen Pass is likely to have been captured by the Jin soldiers.

In fact, even if the Jin soldiers did not capture the Tumen Pass, they could not hold there, the Tumen Pass is not the Yanmen Pass, once the Jin soldiers attacked, at most one day can capture the Tumen Pass, the only interception method is the fierce battle between the two armies, completely defeat the enemy's attack, if you hold the pass can block the enemy army, there will be no idiom of a backwater battle.

Li Yanqing pondered for a long time and said, "Let Yan Qing come to see me immediately!" ”

Not long after, Yan Qing hurriedly came, knelt down on one knee and saluted, "See the capital system!" ”

Li Yanqing said to him: "You can lead fifty elites to Jingcheng, if you find that the golden soldiers of the brigade have entered Jingcheng, you can immediately send a pigeon letter to inform Taiyuan." ”

"Obey the order!"

Yan Qing hurriedly went with a salute, and Li Yanqing's eyes turned to Yanmen Pass again, once the Jin soldiers switched from Hebei to Hedong Road, the first line of defense on Hedong Road would be meaningless.

．．．．．．．

After Yan Zongwang conquered Yanjing City, he quickly gained the support of the people of Yanshan Mansion by paying tribute to the soldiers of the Liao State, and the Jin soldiers quickly gained a firm foothold in Yanshan Mansion, and then the soldiers were divided into two ways to move south, all the way to the deputy capital of Yan Yanmu as the main general, leading an army of 50,000 into Hejian Mansion and attacking the East Hebei Road.

Wanyan Zongwang led an army of 50,000 to attack Zhending Mansion, with Guo Yaoshi as a guide, the first to enter Dingzhou, Dingzhou commanded Liu Bixian to surrender, and the 30,000 Xiang army deployed in Dingzhou was defeated without a fight, so that the Jin soldiers were like a bamboo, without encountering any resistance, and they were killed in Zhending County three days later.

There were only 5,000 troops in Zhending County, and Wang Yan was commanded by Wang Yan, who had learned that 30,000 reinforcements were about to arrive, so he ordered the whole army to defend the city and wait for reinforcements.

Jin soldiers set up a large camp thirty miles away from Zhending County, in the big tent of the Chinese army, Liang Fangping, the original Hebei two-way transfer envoy, offered advice to Yan Zongwang: "Although Zhending County is tall and strong, in fact, it is not difficult to attack, His Royal Highness can temporarily not attack the city, wait for the Song army reinforcements to come, and then divide 30,000 elite soldiers to ambush the reinforcements, at this time the Song army labor division came to the rescue, the soldiers must be tired, the army is not in time, at this time with cavalry attack, but the Song army can be defeated in a battle, and then threaten Zhending City, Zhending City has no reinforcements to look forward to, and will naturally surrender to the general, This is a strategy to besiege the city and send reinforcements, I hope His Highness will adopt it! ”

Wanyan Zongwang nodded, "This plan is really wonderful, but I received an urgent letter from my brother that the Western Route Army can't attack Yanmen Pass, and I plan to send 20,000 troops from Jingcheng to Hedong Road and attack its back, do you think you should attack Jingcheng first?" ”

"Your Highness, Jing Cheng is not to worry, I know very well that Tumen Village has long been abandoned, His Royal Highness can send a light army to Jing Cheng to seize the Jing Cheng Pass on the west side, and after capturing Zhending Mansion, it is not too late for the army to kill Hedong Road."

After a pause, Liang Fangping said again: "His Royal Highness suggests that His Highness can first send the Yanshan Army from Yizhou to kill Daizhou on the Flying Fox Road, since the alliance of Tanyuan, there has been no war in the Flying Fox Road, the defensive army on the side of Daizhou has long been abandoned, only the bottle-shaped village is barely usable, but it can't resist the attack of the army, as long as a strong force enters Daizhou, the natural danger of Yanmen Pass can be easily broken from the back, plus the attack of Jingcheng in the south, Hedong Road will be at your fingertips, please consider your highness!" ”

Wanyan Zongwang laughed happily, "Mr. is worthy of being a living map of the great cause of the Jin Kingdom going south, with Mr. here, Hebei and Hedong are not to worry." ”

Wanyan Zongwang immediately sent two thousand commanders Pu Cha and Shenguo to enter Jingcheng with 2,000 troops, and seized Jingcheng Pass first, and at the same time ordered Guo Yaoshi to lead 30,000 Changsheng troops to go to Daizhou on the Flying Fox Road to kill Daizhou in advance, and he personally led 30,000 cavalry to the south to meet the 30,000 Song troops from afar.......

The Song army commander who supported Zhending Mansion was Liu Guangshi, the commander of the West Route Army, he led 30,000 forbidden troops to march to Zhending County day and night, Liu Guangshi was the son of Liu Yanqing, the former Shaanxi Road defense envoy, because of his meritorious service in following the Northern Expedition of the Seed Division, he was named the general of the Left Guard, and the deputy commander of the palace, this time he was recommended by the prince, and he served as the commander of the West Route Army, responsible for the defense of Zhending Mansion and Dingzhou.

Although Liu Guangshi immediately led the army to the north after being ordered, but it was still a step late, he got the news that the Jin soldiers had invaded Dingzhou in Zhaozhou, which immediately made Liu Guangshi anxious, he must rush to Zhending County before the Jin soldiers, Zhending County has enough food, the city wall is tall and strong, as long as Zhending County is held, the defense of the western front can be established.

But Liu Guangshi still overestimated the defense of Dingzhou, he thought that there were 30,000 defenders in Dingzhou, even if the Xiang army was defeated by the Jin soldiers, but at least he could buy himself three days, and he could kill the Jin soldiers to Zhending Mansion and rush to Zhending County.

It's just that Liu Guangshi never dreamed that the defenders of Dingzhou didn't hold even an hour, and they were directly defeated without a fight, and the main general Liu Bixian surrendered the city, and the three days he hoped to win had been completely shattered.

On the official road, which is about 80 miles south of Zhending County, Liu Guangshi led 30,000 reinforcements to the north, and on both sides of the official road are endless wheat fields, the summer grain has already been harvested, and the wilderness has become bare, only to see flocks of birds circling in the wilderness, looking for missing wheat grains.

In the north of Hebei Road, there are three kinds of two years, and after the summer harvest, there is no further sowing of autumn grain, but the soil is raised for one season, and winter wheat is sown in late autumn.

Just as the army was marching hard, suddenly a low sound of antlers sounded from the northwest and northeast directions at the same time, and hundreds of antlers sounded at the same time, and 30,000 Jurchen cavalry appeared in front of the Song army from three directions.