Later generations called Linyu Pass Road the West Liaoning Corridor, and it is appropriate to say that it is a corridor. From Yuguan to Songshan, sandwiched between Songling Mountain and Liaodong Bay, this place is 3670 miles long, only 10 or 20 miles wide narrow and long terrain, connecting Liaodong Gujun and Yanji land, it is really a standard corridor terrain.

Chen Tangyi was defeated, and the border troops all withdrew into Linyu Pass, and surrendered the western Liaoxi land outside the pass to the Donghu people.

The western part of Liaoning is backed by mountains and the sea, and the Donghu people have no intention of confronting the Yue Dynasty on the narrow terrain. After gaining the land of western Liao, the Donghu people went to Liaodong to manage Liaodong, destroyed the walled cities in western Liaoning, turned millions of acres of tuntian in western Liaoxi into wasteland, and only built Songshan, Tashan, and Jinxi Zhucheng at the northern end, which became the defense line of the outer periphery of Liaoyang, the royal capital.

After winter, a frosty and windy dusk, between the hills south of Ningjin in Liaoning Province, on a bare and cold mountain, there was a ruin on the mountain. In the depression in the southeast corner of the ruins, there is a boundary stele stone that is broken into two sections, and the three words "Chen Tangyi" can be seen.

This is the main battlefield of the battle of Chentangyi, the post fort in the past has been completely destroyed, maybe you can see the majesty of the Chentangyi fort in the past from the scale of the ruins, but at this time it is not as tall as the lonely pine tree on the mountain.

There were about two hundred cavalrymen standing on the top of the mountain, wearing dark iron armor that made people's hearts chill when they saw it, and they were all tied to blue-black coats. It's already early winter, and the wind hurts like a scraper on your face, and if you don't wear a big hat, the weather is really pleasant.

Gao Zongting rode over hard, saw the commander standing in front, and walked over to see the boundary monument stone at the feet of the commander, this is Chen Tangyi - Gao Zongting personally went out of Chongqing Pass and walked through the western part of Liao, which is the main battlefield of the confrontation between the border army and the Donghu people, and there are dozens of post forts and walled forts that have been destroyed. If you can't see the boundary monument, Gao Zongting rode a horse all the way, and he couldn't open his eyes when he was beaten by the frost wind, and he really didn't know that he had arrived at Chentangyi.

In front of the mountain, is a shallow valley that is not deep, since the wind and snow are pervasive, covering the earth, you can also see the corpses that are full of mountains and valleys - Chen Tangyi battle, the elite of the border army is lost, the mountains and valleys on the left and right, more than 100,000 corpses are ambushed, listening to the whistling north wind, it seems that there are countless resentful souls and wild ghosts in the call.

Gao Zongting subconsciously wrapped Da Yu tighter, and said: "There is a letter from the south that the bandit Changle Army has captured Qichun, which has offset the results of Huaidong's attack on the coast of eastern Fujian - Jiang Ning was a little caught off guard, and intended to transfer Zhihu to the south and fight the Changle Army first. There is no new news on Datong's side, and it should be able to support Ye Ji Duodi's hands until the beginning of spring - Hao Zongcheng brought another holy oracle, Xu is urging us to speed up the march, I will ride over to find the commander first! ”

Li Zhuo stood in the frosty wind like a bronze statue, and asked with a sigh: "Has Qi Chun fallen?" ”

"Well, Qi Chun has fallen, from Jinghu to Jiangxi, and then to Jiangdong are in chaos," Gao Zongting said, "Zhihu fought fiercely in Henan, and finally joined forces with the Changhuai Army to besiege the Red Jacket Army on the Huaiyang line, and suddenly transferred him south, and the results that had been accumulated since July were about to be ruined!" Maybe Jiangning should transfer the Huai Eastern Army to the west! ”

"Huaidong," Li Zhuo turned his head to look at the dark and oppressive sky to the south, shook his head, and said, "Lin Tie will not go west, he has repeatedly reminded Qi Chun that something may be wrong, but he has turned a deaf ear...... The people of Huaidong are not you and me. ”

Gao Zongting turned his head to look at the ruins on the hill and said nothing. He knew that if the Donghu people hadn't sent troops to besiege Datong as scheduled, the commander would delay it until after the spring of next year, and then consider whether to send troops.

The confidence of the Donghu people is getting stronger and stronger, and they are also more and more willing to fight. In order to avoid the Donghu people from besieging Datong and then dividing their troops to attack Jinzhong or Yannan, Li Zhuo could only send troops from Linyu Pass in this season according to the established plan, hoping to attract the main force of Donghu to the north of the Liaoxi Corridor - Li Zhuo pressed the speed of the army, that is, to wait for the Donghu people to resist the pressure and withdraw the troops and horses from the periphery of Datong.

As long as the Donghu people withdraw from Datong, Li Zhuo will be charged with disobeying the order of resistance, and he will also return to Guannei from the collection of troops.

It's hateful, the Donghu people were not moved by the northern army from Linyu, and the soldiers and horses assembled in the periphery of Datong were always maintained at more than 100,000, and the edicts urging the DPRK to speed up the march here were one after another, asking Li Zhuo to take advantage of the Donghu people's troops to gather on the periphery of Datong to smash Liaoyang, the heart of the Donghu people.

The sound of horses' hooves was mixed with the sound of the wind, blocking a hill, but a team of horses could be heard coming, and Gao Zongting said: "Xu is Hao Zongcheng can't wait in the camp......"

After a while, it was really Hao Zongcheng who rode over on horseback, surrounded by dozens of cavalry.

"Li Shuai, the army will recover the cities of Ningjin after leaving the customs, and have won many great victories, the saint is greatly relieved, and I am specially asked to bring an edict to reward the generals......" Hao Zongcheng said loudly while rolling off his horse.

Gao Zongting glanced at the ruins and said secretly: This is also a recovered city?

In the first battle of Chentangyi, the border army was crushed for thousands of miles, and lost the power of field warfare outside the Guan, and the Donghu people kept the land in western Liao, and only built a city at the northern end of the western Liaoning corridor. First, the Donghu people have limited city-building skills, and second, it may be that the Donghu people want to attract the main force of the border army to go out of the pass and build forts, in order to defeat the border army again in the field battle on the outer line......

The 60,000 troops marching to the north were very slow, and in more than ten days, even the 300-mile-long Linyuguan Road was only halfway through, and it was still 145 miles away from Songshan, Jinxi and other cities in the north. In addition to cutting off a few outposts and forts of the Donghu people in western Liaoning, the Northern Army had no other gains, but it became a great victory in Hao Zongcheng's eyes.

Li Zhuo didn't say anything else, he arched his hand with Hao Zongcheng, and said, "Lord Hao has worked hard to go back and forth......

"What do I have to work hard for?" Hao Zongcheng said with a smile, he put the holy decree in his sleeve, and according to the rules, he could not read it until he returned to the big tent and placed the incense case, so he only told Li Zhuo what the holy decree was written, and he would not directly hand over the holy decree to Li Zhuo, saying, "The war in Datong is getting tighter, and everything is waiting for Li Shuai to make a final decision." The saint specially asked me to ask Li Shuai if he could push the army to the city of Liaoyang...... I also know that Liaoyang may not be easy to fight, but as long as Songshan and other cities are captured, the captives besieging Datong can be forced to withdraw from the siege, and the old county of Liaoxi can be recovered, and the formation will be restored five or six years ago. Although the situation in the south has been repeated, Chen Zhihu is really a fierce general in the present dynasty, and there should be no big worries. Chen Zhihu went south in June, only more than four months, and he won more than 50,000 grades for the first time, which is really a generation of famous generals! Although there are many bandits, there is always a time to kill them all, and the Jianghuai situation is just around the corner! Li Shuai Hugh complained about my nagging and urging, I respect Li Shuai as the pillar of the imperial court, but I don't want Li Shuai to lead the northern expedition but be much inferior to his subordinates in the past! ”

"In the past, there were some thin names, didn't they rely on Zhihu and a few of them to help them support it?" Li Zhuo's face was as usual, ignoring Hao Zongcheng's radical method, and asked again, "I heard that it has snowed heavily in Yannan, and it may be extra cold this winter, so it is not a problem to have enough food, right?" ”

"Even if the Jinhai Sea may be sealed in a few days, there will be no problem," Hao Zongcheng said, "Lu Guogong spent a lot of effort to build a post road in Jinan that leads directly to the Wei River, and the rice grain from Shandong and Hedong can be taken by land, to the Wei River, and then to Gyeonggi." The grain and grass stored on the front line of Changli can be used exclusively to ensure that the northern army is fully supported......"

The sediment of the Yellow River almost silted up the Cao Canal in Jinan and Pingyuan, and seized the channel of the Zhulong River into the sea. Kaicao has to dig the river again, the imperial court has no strength to do it for the time being, and Liang Xi, the Duke of Lu, does not have the strength to do it, just to build a post road, which can transport grain to Beijing, in fact, it will be very limited.

The last time the Donghu people broke through the border and entered the customs, they took away nearly 400,000 Dingkou from the three prefectures of Yannan, and also took away 6.7 million head of livestock from Yannan and Lubei; The year before last, the Yellow River embankment was built and the people were in turmoil, which caused another heavy setback in this area.

Yannan and other places, in ten or eight years, don't think that the vitality can be restored, one is that Dingkou has lost too much, and the second is that there is a serious shortage of farming animals......

It is a good thing to build a post road to transport grain, but Gao Zongting doubts that the Liang family can find enough mules and horses to transport grain: transporting grain by land from Jinan to Weihe cannot give people high hopes. The Liang family doesn't have the power to be really proficient in political affairs, but I'm afraid that they haven't thought of the stubborn disease in it, right?

But what is even more worrying is the over-optimism of the imperial court about the situation in Jianghuai, Jiangsu, and Zhejiang - the Changle army captured Qichun, which has obviously disrupted the deployment of Jiangdong, but the imperial court is more willing to believe that as long as Chen Zhihu is transferred to the south, all problems can be solved.

Gao Zongting met Chen Zhihu in Yanling in mid-July, but in fact he did not expect Chen Zhihu to listen to him. In fact, it also proves that after that, Chen Zhihu still went his own way, and was accustomed to solving all problems by killing, which also made the imperial court and Jiangning tend to suppress and exterminate the opinions of the exile army.

Hao Zongcheng saw that Li Zhuo and Gao Zongting were thinking at the same time, and since the Liang family cultivated the Yuncao Post Road, he touched them, and looked at Li Zhuo and sneered in his heart: You support Huaidong's monopoly of the Jinhai Grain Road, probably you don't want to see the Liang family also get a piece of the pie!

At the beginning, Hao Zong could obtain some private grain from the Jinhai Grain Road and transport it to Gyeonggi for profit. Since Tang Haoxin's death, Lin Jian cut off the supply of private grain to Hao Zongcheng, and allocated this part of the private grain to Gao Zongting to make up for the shortage of money and salary of the Jibei Army - this is also to repay Li Zhuo's support for Huaidong in the matter of "salt and silver to protect grain".

Hao Zongcheng was holding a grudge, the Liang family built the Yuncao Post Road, and he could get a piece of the soup from the Jinhai Grain Road, he made a lot of effort, and it was inevitable that he was a little proud, and said: "The saint saw that the weather was getting cold in the palace, and he thought of the suffering of the north, so he specially asked me to bring a good tribute to Li Shuai, and asked Li Shuai to take good care of his body and serve the court." ”

"The emperor's grace is vast, Li Zhuo feels it in his heart, and he should do his best for the imperial court......" Li Zhuo bowed his hand in the southwest direction.

Gao Zongting was worried in his heart: Hao Zongcheng braved the bitter cold weather on behalf of the emperor to come over to supervise the army and urge the war, how could the commander drag it not to fight Songshan?