The Dingbei Army was stationed on the north bank of the Yellow River, and many of the Righteous and Song troops who came to Hedong to defect to the east of the river were as many as 20,000 people in five or six days, and several of them came specifically to defect to Yang Zhi. After being defeated by the Jin army, he fled to Luliang Mountain with several hundred of his men, and together with Wei Quan and Sun Mou of the two cottages of Luliang Mountain, there were more than 1,600 people;

Yang Zhi surprised Yang Zhi the most by a man named Liang Xing, Yang Zhi did not remember what kind of big man he was, but Liang Xing was very high-spirited, and at first glance he was a good character, and after listening to Shao Xing's introduction, he was quite famous in the area of Hezhong Mansion; Liang Xing took three people and asked Yang Zhi in Yang Zhi's big tent: "Does the Dingbei Army talk about loyalty?"

Yang Yi and others were furious, this was purely to find death, Yang Zhi signaled that it was okay, smiled slightly and said: "Loyalty, in everyone's mind, it is different, we Dingbei Army is loyal to the Great Song Dynasty, Zhao Huan betrayed Yunzhong, Taiyuan, Hejian, Zhongshan Four Mansions, it is a betrayal of the Great Song Dynasty, so we will be different in Taiyuan." Now Bianliang has gone so far as to be a minister, letting the Jin people decide the future of the Central Plains, ignoring the people of the Central Plains, and we are retaking the city from the Jin army for the sake of justice. ”

Wang Yu, Xu Huiyan and the others happened to be walking at the entrance of the tent, and they couldn't help but stop and listen to the two of them; Liang Xing thought for a while and asked: "Why don't you go on a northern expedition and capture Hebei while the Jin army is heading south?"

Yang Zhi said lightly: "The Northern Expedition can be achieved overnight, like now, Guanzhong and Henan do not have any combat effectiveness, we rashly enter Hebei, I am afraid that even the old nest will be occupied by the Jin." The word loyalty and righteousness is not something that some people can just put on their lips, fighting a war depends on the lives of soldiers, and every battle consumes the manpower and material resources of the people; under such circumstances, we can only advance step by step. First of all, it is necessary to restore Guanzhong, then to cross the Yellow River after stabilizing Lianghuai, and then to capture Hebei after consolidating Henan; Yunzhong can constantly exert pressure on Youzhou and contain troops. ”

Liang Xing said with a smile: "Isn't it the same lip service, there is no guarantee." ”

Yang Zhi looked at Liang Xing and said: "This is responsible for the soldiers and the people, you can't forget what you want to do in order to leave a name in history, how much a country's territory depends on population and control, population is the key to a country's national strength, the Warring States are so lively, limited to Shaanxi, Hebei, Shandong and other places, in fact, it is not because the population of the seven countries together is only five million;

How many people are there in the Dingbei army now, if it is all at once, what can be relied on to replenish it, relying on a righteous army like you, or those vulnerable armies in Guanzhong and Henan? It takes time to train the army and accumulate grain and grass, I don't expect you to come to us, but I want you to think about the people who follow you, and you can't let them die uselessly because they trust you. ”

Liang Xing pondered for a moment and asked, "What will happen to Jin Jun next?"

Yang Zhi brought Liang Xing to the map, drew a circle in Henan and said: "The Jin people go south, and they will definitely not want to occupy Bianliang at once, because the population of the Central Plains is too large, and if the people of the Jurchen and other tribes are scattered all at once, they will definitely quickly disappear in the vast sea of people and be assimilated by the Han people, which is unacceptable for the Jurchen people who have just risen, and they are even worried about the Khitan people, not to mention the Han people." Because of the problem of control, the Jin people can only be limited to Hebei at present, and the smart point is to let Jianghuai Henan always fall into war, so that they can eat away little by little in the future.

If this is the case, it is better to support an obedient regime and let the Han people consume their own strength; this problem also exists for our Great Song Dynasty, we must be based on the local area, we cannot expect Jiangnan to continuously send supplies, Jiangnan cannot support the war for a long time, and the further north you go, the longer the transportation route will be extended. If we want to restore Yanyun, we have to fight with the Jin people repeatedly in Guanzhong, Henan, and Hebei, no matter whether we win or lose, no matter whether the city is won or lost, we must fight until the Jin people withdraw from Hebei. ”

Wang Xie, Yang Yi and others were enthusiastic when they heard this, Liang Xing looked back at the three of them, and the four of them knelt down for Yang Zhi and said, "Liang Xing, Zhao Yun, Li Jin, and Qiao Zhijian pay a visit to the general." ”

Yang Zhi put the four of them together and said, "You are welcome to join the Dingbei Army, are you willing to fight the world, or do you just want to defend your hometown?"

Most of the rebels who came to defect wanted to stay in Hedong, or follow the Dingbei Army into the pass to seek an official and a half-position, and there were not many people who really had the ambition to conquer the world, so far only Wang Xie and a few other people were willing to follow the Dingbei Army wholeheartedly to various places, Liang Xing stood up and said without hesitation: "Conquer the world and recover Hebei." ”

Wang Yu and Xu Huiyan were silent on the side for a long time, today they really saw Yang Zhi's vision and bearing, and they took great pains to make a subordinate. The two glanced at each other, walked into the big tent together, and Wang Yu arched his hand and said: "Chief Yang, I heard the report from the scout, Wan Yan Gao personally led 40,000 Ma Bu troops to gather on the other side, and it should be ready to cross the Yellow River." ”

Now that the Yellow River has not thawed, and Ma Bujun can come with him, Yang Zhi asked, "Can you determine where Yan Gao crossed the river from?"

"Xizhai ferry. Yang Zhi nodded and said: "Please General Min to guard against the sneak attack of the Jin army on the Huayin side, and transport the fat water transported from Yanzhou and the catapult built in the past few days to the other side of Xizhai for ambush, we are powerless to stop it, but at least we must give Wan Yan Gao a big gift." ”

Yang Zhiming's office only arranged for the fat water to be burned on the ice surface and the catapult to prepare the boulders, and secretly asked Wei Dingguo, Shan Tinggui and the Yellow River gang leader Ming Chisong to lead his men to dig thousands of small holes in the ice; now it is no longer snowing, but the weather is still a little cold, although the ice on the Yellow River has not melted, but it will not continue to freeze, and there is no problem for pedestrians who have drilled into the ice to walk, and the cavalry of the brigade will not know when they cross the river.

Wanyan Gao's 40,000-strong army swept in, more than 10,000 cavalry just passed through the ice, when the fat water burned on the ice, the catapult threw hundreds of boulders onto the ice, the Jin army, which had already rushed ashore, immediately found that something was wrong; there was a phenomenon of ice breaking and collapsing on the river surface, and the original thunderous hooves became the death knell that sounded by itself, and the Jin army quickly divided into two groups, one group continued to charge to the north bank, and the other group returned in a hurry.

Wanyan was dragged back to the south bank by her subordinates, only to see more than 2,000 horsemen fall into the Yellow River, and more than 1,000 horsemen were slaughtered by the Dingbei army with divine arm bows and cavalry on the north bank.