Zhong Shaolin's troops had already arrived at the Liao camp, but when they saw that the war was coming to an end, and saw a large number of prisoners of war being taken into custody, they saw that these prisoners of war were in a dark and oppressive place, and it was estimated that there were fifty or sixty thousand people, and the guards of the 1st Army Division at the scene were obviously insufficient.

After Zhong Shaolin saw this situation, he hurriedly divided his troops and sent people to assist, and then he asked the Song army personnel at the scene where his commander went, and after getting the answer, he hurriedly rode his horse to go.

At this time, Zhang Dexiang also rushed forward and walked with him to the garrison of Yang Wenguang and Meng Ming, at this time Yang Wenguang and Meng Ming were convening a meeting of their generals to discuss the next military action and carry out pre-war planning, deployment and mobilization.

At this time, Meng Ming hung up a map three meters long and two meters wide in front of everyone, which was a map of the sixteen states of Youyun.

He marked three points with a red pen on the map, one is Waqiao Pass, one is Qigou Pass, and one is Zhuozhou;

In addition, four points have been marked with a black pen, one is Bauhinia Pass, one is Juyong Pass, one is Gubeikou, and one is Shanhaiguan.

I heard him say: "The sixteen states of Youyun were originally the inherent territory of my Han family, and after the turmoil of the late Tang Dynasty and the five dynasties, the Khitan people have grown up; Then, in order to become emperor, Shi Jingjiao ceded the sixteen states of Youyun to the Khitan; Since then, the Sixteen Prefectures of Youyun have fallen into the hands of the fishy Hu people, and it has been almost ninety years now. ”

He then explained: "This Youyun Sixteen Prefectures is the lifeblood of the Song and Liao dynasties, and the two countries frequently fought around this place before the Lanyuan Alliance.

So what if the Sixteen Prefectures of Youyun are lost? Once this place is mastered by the nomads, the Central Plains loses the natural and artificial defense line between the northern nomads, the northern line of the Great Song Dynasty, the northern land north of the Yellow River and the east of the region is almost undefendable, and will face heavy national defense pressure, and unfortunately, my Song Dynasty is facing this situation.

Moreover, the battle of Lanyuan in the future just illustrated the consequences of losing the sixteen states of Youyun. ”

Yang Wenguang asked: "Political Commissar Meng, how do we move next?" Now it's a bit out of place to talk about recovering the sixteen states of Youyun, the Song and Liao countries have broken out several wars around the ownership of the sixteen states of Youyun, all of which ended with the fiasco of our Great Song Dynasty, so now the ministers in the court have long lost their courage, let alone confidence, they must oppose the attack on Youyun. ”

Meng Ming said: "Division Commander Yang, your analysis is quite correct, but time has changed, with our new army as the main force, and with the strength of our artillery fire, it will not be a problem to recover the clouds; Of course, the current conditions are still not very mature, as long as the new army has 50,000 people, you can drink the Great Wall. ”

He also said: "Let's set a small goal first, as long as we can have seven states east of Taihang Mountain, we can completely reverse the situation of the Great Song Dynasty being beaten and beaten."

In fact, everyone has already discovered that the border line has been pushed to Gubeikou, and my Great Song Dynasty is equivalent to completely controlling the Inner Great Wall, that is, having a complete Taihang Mountain Range - the outer Sanguan defense line, and the original large gap on the northern border was blocked by the Taihang Mountain Range;

The new frontier was located entirely in the mountains, and the terrain was difficult to deploy for large cavalry.

And because the defense is a few "points", our Great Song Dynasty does not need to deploy a large number of borders, and the huge amount of money saved is used to strengthen these important towns, with a small number of troops (compared to before) to focus on defense, and then build a few sections of the Great Wall.

If nothing else, judging from the siege capabilities of the nomads at that time, it is difficult to pose a threat to the Great Wall. ”

At this time, Zhang Dexiang and Zhong Shaolin came to the division headquarters of the First Lu Division, and heard Meng Ming's speech in front of the door, and immediately felt refreshed.

At this time, Zhang Dexiang pushed open the door, and heard him say loudly: "Listening to Meng Zhengsheng's words is better than reading a book for ten years. ”

As soon as Meng Ming heard the sound, he saw Zhang Dexiang, the two are still old acquaintances? When he tried the cannon for the first time, Zhang Dexiang also visited it as a privy deputy envoy.

The same is true of Yang Wenguang, the new army he organized is under the direct jurisdiction of the Privy Council, and the two often meet, and he often reports to Zhang Dexiang on the training of the new army.

Yang Wenguang and Meng Ming hurriedly stepped forward to greet the old man, and at the same time noticed the middle-aged general behind him, Zhang Dexiang introduced this person to Meng Ming and Yang Wenguang, and at the same time introduced these two to Zhong Shaolin.

As for the future combat arrangements, due to the addition of Zhang Dexiang and Zhong Shaolin, Meng Ming and Yang Wenguang also solicited the opinions of the two, and Meng Ming's idea was to take advantage of the victory to pursue and attack first

Qigou Pass, and then capture Zhuozhou.

At this time, the reconnaissance brigade of the 1st Lu Division came with the news, saying that Emperor Liao's Luan had arrived fifty miles north of Zhuozhou, and it was estimated that he would arrive in Zhuozhou tomorrow, and at this time, a bold idea suddenly popped up in Meng Ming's mind at this time.

And the commander of the Liao army, Yelu Honggu, was desperately rescued from the Liao army camp by the guards at this time, and he was still in a trance, and his ears kept buzzing, like gongs and bowls ringing in his ears, anyway, no matter how these guards shouted, he couldn't hear anything.

The camp tents of the deputy marshal Yelu Zhilugon and the overseer Neligu were hit by artillery fire on the spot because they were next to the tent, and both of them were blown to pieces, and their bones were gone.

Therefore, the main reason for the defeat of the Liao army was that it lost the commander's immediate command, fought separately, and could not organize an effective defensive counterattack, and was broken one by one.

He now understands his current situation, and also knows that the 80,000 army of the Liao army has been defeated, he is hiding in a farmhouse, he has people in charge, and he wants to write a chapter for the Liao Shengzong and play the military intelligence report here to the emperor.

See him write:

"Your Majesty the Emperor is safe

... Our army was attacked by the Song army at night, and now the Liao army has been defeated and collapsed...

The Song army has a magic weapon, when it is fired, it is like thunder, its projectile is covered with flames, when it lands, it is like lightning and thunder, the ground shakes the mountains, the people and horses are broken, and there is no living mouth within three zhang....

His subordinates deserve death for their sins, and they have lost their holy hope, and even if they die, it will be difficult to atone for their sins.

But the minister is already a dying person, and his words are also good, I hope that His Majesty will return to Beijing as soon as possible to avoid the edge of the Song army, so as not to fall into an unpredictable place.

I also hope that Your Majesty will shake hands with the Great Song Dynasty as soon as possible and make peace with the Great Song Dynasty and rebuild the old friendship, so that the future generations of the two countries will not start a war in vain;

The ministers wept and worshipped, and may Your Majesty be eternal, peaceful and peaceful. ”

After he finished writing the recital, he handed it to the guards, and asked him to hand it over to the Liao Emperor Yelu Longxu overnight, and he took advantage of the guards' inattention, and suddenly drew his sword and killed himself, and saw that his eyes were wide open, facing north, and blood shot from his neck, and then he fell to the ground with a bang, and died of exhaustion.

At this time, the follow-up reinforcements of Chong Shiheng also arrived, about 20,000 people, and the prisoners of war of the 1st Army Division had been handed over to these reinforcements to guard;

Then the 1st Lu Division moved to the north of the Qigou Pass, and Zhang Dexiang and Zhong Shaolin led their troops to go together, and at dawn, they arrived at the Qigou Pass, and immediately the Song army launched an attack, and it took only a stick of incense to capture this Xiongguan.

The 1st Lu Division continued to attack northward, and arrived at the city of Zhuozhou at noon, at this time there were 2,000 defenders in Zhuozhou, and another 3,000 village soldiers.

At this time, Li Zhiqi, the governor of Zhuozhou, was observing the enemy situation on the city tower, and when he looked from afar, he saw that the troops of the Song army were overwhelming, and they could not see the edge at a glance, and it was estimated that there were 30,000 people.

His heart suddenly sank to the bottom, he knew that his army must have been defeated, otherwise the Song army would not have taken the opportunity to attack Zhuozhou, but he still decided to resist the Song army to the end.

Although he is a Han Chinese, the Yanyun region's identification with the Central Plains culture of the Central Plains Dynasty was surprisingly weak in the late Tang Dynasty.

But Du Mu wrote "The Epitaph of Fan Yang Lu Xiucai in the Tang Dynasty"

In it, Lu Xiucai is quite learned and prestigious in Yanyun, and is respected as Mr., but he is "born in his twenties, and it is unknown that the ancients had Zhou Gong and Confucius." "Language learning is nothing more than a matter of combat, offense and defense."

I didn't even know that there was Luoyang in the east and Chang'an in the west. Even the Tang Emperor has no impression, and several generations of ancestors have been officials in the three towns of Hebei. And Lu Xiucai wanted to go to Chang'an to see the world, so he wanted to flee to the Taoist temple to hide, and finally quietly left the Hebei domain to the border of the Tang Dynasty.

Yes, after the sixteen states of Yanyun were acquired by Liao, this situation may become more and more serious. Most of the people in the Yanyun area don't even know how prosperous Kaifeng is, and they don't even know Confucius and Zhou Gong.

He didn't have any sense of identity with the Great Song Emperor, and decided that he had nothing to do with the Central Plains, and if the Northern Song Dynasty attacked Yanyun, these Han people would not welcome the king.

He dispatched troops on the city tower, demolished all the houses around the city wall, and prepared a large amount of grease, bricks, gold juice, and giant trees, in order to resist the Song army's siege.

He also knew that he couldn't do anything, so he saw him exclaim: "The food of the king, the matter of loyalty to the king; Do your best and let God do your best! ”

The 1st Lu Division immediately sent troops to set up formation, and then launched an artillery bombardment on the city gate, when a loud bang was heard, and the city gate was suddenly torn apart, and the cave gate was opened.

Immediately, the 1st Division of the Army and the Seed Army rushed towards the city gate, and at this time, several waves of arrows rained down on the city wall, which immediately caused nearly 100 casualties of the Song army;

Seeing this, Meng Ming hurriedly asked the artillery to fire a cannon on the city wall, and immediately blew up the defenders on the city wall and scattered in all directions.

At this time, another cannonball fell, and it exploded next to Li Zhiqi, only to see that he was blown to the ground, his limbs were broken, and his broken limbs and internal organs fell everywhere, and at this time the grease was ignited, and the raging fire spread, instantly swallowing everything around, Li Zhiqi was really dead at this time.

The Song army quickly invaded the city of Zhuozhou, and soon cleared the recalcitrant enemy, Meng Ming and Yang Wenguang and others entered the city of Zhuozhou, which was the first time in 30 years that the Great Song Dynasty occupied the city of Zhuozhou.