The north wind is howling, the snow in the mountains and forests is knee-deep, the road is becoming more and more difficult, people are sleepy and horses are lacking, and the torches of the chasing soldiers in the rear are like a fire dragon winding down the mountain.

Yelu Huge's face was pale, and he didn't know if the Qi people had guessed their thoughts, or they didn't think too much about it at all, but according to the convention, they arranged heavy troops in the north and east, in short, more than 20,000 elite horsemen guarding the Da Kedun clan, after leaving the city, they encountered a series of bloody battles, and now, they are trapped at the foot of Weng Mountain, which is more than 40 miles north of Youzhou City.

The heavy snow for a day and night greatly affected the mobility of the cavalry, which not only made it difficult to gallop, but also left a large number of traces, and it was impossible to get rid of the pursuers.

Of the more than 20,000 cavalry, they have not been separated in the fierce battle, and those who have not fallen behind are only four or five thousand cavalry.

In fact, it seems that from the moment before the raid out of the city, there was a bad call.

I don't know where hundreds of Qi people suddenly appeared, killing their own soldiers who were ready to set fire to the warehouse, and waiting for their own cavalry to rush over, slaughtering some of these Qi people, and a small part of them fled, but the firewood and other things that were originally prepared did not know where they were moved, and then they wanted to prepare, and the Qi soldiers who rushed in from the gap had already been killed very quickly, obviously, their goal was very clear, and they first had to protect the storage in the city after entering the city.

In desperation, a large number of grains, grass, money, cloth, etc., in order to go south to the massive hoarding of this secluded capital in Nanjing, can only be left to the Qi people.

At that moment, Yelu Hugo faintly felt that something was wrong.

Sure enough, when he left Beicheng, he immediately encountered stubborn resistance, bloody battles, and the Qi army was surrounded layer by layer.

From the north of Youzhou City to this Weng Mountain, more than forty miles, but it seems to be a journey of death, and even, some lone cavalry were beaten by the righteous and brave people spontaneously organized by the Qi people, as if, the resentment of the past twenty or thirty years should be vented at this moment.

Nowadays, people are sleepy and tired, and they are trapped in the foothills of the mountains.

He proposed to dismount and lead the horses over Weng Mountain, although no one objected, but obviously, many generals were not very convinced of themselves.

Some people whispered and complained, and even, they were not too afraid to hear it.

Sighing softly, Yelu Hugo looked at the white road ahead in the night, and his heart became more and more worried.

……

Youzhou City, every household is full of lights, of course, there are spontaneous ones, but many, but also panicked, it is because of the "eating pot pulp, in order to welcome the king", show more enthusiasm.

After conquering Youzhou, that is, the Youdu Mansion of Nanjing of the Liao people, Lu Ning knew that when the news was transmitted back to Beijing, it would make the ministers, the army and the people how excited they were, and their prestige would definitely be the same for a while.

But in Lu Ning's heart, there was no feeling of joy.

Walking around the barracks outside the city and in the city, the more he looked at the simple and happy smiling faces of these soldiers, and the simple wine and meat treat, it was as if he was jubilant about the New Year, especially when he inspected the battalions, their sincere support and excitement, the more Lu Ning sighed in his heart.

After resting for a while in the deserted palace in Youzhou, his spirit gradually returned.

When pondering whether Youzhou would be promoted to Zhongjing or Beijing, Lu Ping came to the palace.

In the side hall, looking at the gray hair that gradually appeared on Lu Ping's temples, Lu Ning was slightly stunned, speaking of which, Lu Ping was only in his thirties, but he didn't want to, his temples already had gray hair, although it was a physique relationship, what later generations called "less white heads", but in the past few years, he has been very worried and inevitable.

After all, Lu Ping, Lu Xing, and Lu Qing are the three talents who eventually grew into the commander of one party in the earliest thirteen Taibao, Lu Qing, as the commander of the pro-army, is often by his side, Lu Xing's temperament is more open-minded, only Lu Ping, as the commander of the Beijing Garrison Battalion, has a bad background, but now he is in command of his own pro-army, the most elite army, thinking that Lu Ping always wants to do the best thing, the so-called dedication must bow to the family, so, it is very tired.

Among the major battalion recruiters, Lu Ping's talent should not be the most prominent, but he is definitely the most loyal to himself.

"When you were in the East China Sea, did you ever think about today?" Looking at the side hall, the coiled dragon pillar with a northern style, Lu Ning said with emotion.

"The slave didn't dare to think about it at that time." When the Son of Heaven mentioned the East China Sea in the past, Lu Ping was also slightly excited.

Thirteen Taibao, now in front of Lu Ning, still regard themselves as slaves, how many times has Lu Ning corrected them, and he has also thought about asking them to return to their original surnames, but in this way, it seems that it is not a reward, but a kind of derogation, which will make them misunderstand their meaning.

After all, today's surname Lu is the surname of the country, and he personally gives the surname, which is even more gracious.

"Your Majesty, the remnants of Yi are trapped in Weng Mountain, the outside is covered with nets, the snow is deep and the road is difficult, and it will inevitably be captured in the near future." Lu Ping hurriedly got down to business again.

Lu Ning nodded, the so-called Weng Mountain today is the Wanshou Mountain of the Summer Palace in later generations.

"Also, just after the horse came to report, the high envoy Jun has defeated the Khitan army outside Shunzhou City. His Majesty was resting, so he did not dare to disturb him. ”

Lu Ning bowed slightly, the news of the capture of Youzhou should have reached Gao Huaide now, and Gao Huaide will inevitably go north and take advantage of the situation to recover Danzhou, the northernmost of the Youzhou states.

And Lu Xing's Hebei Army is also regrouping.

Although it is not a big problem for Yelu to flee back to the outside of the fortress as long as he does not continue to be reckless, after all, there are many different ways to return to the outside of the fortress, and it is extremely difficult to contain a highly mobile cavalry team in the pass, and the other party does not love to fight.

But Lu Xing must also hope that he will be ashamed and can intercept and kill more Liao cavalry who fled north.

"The slave has also sent envoys to recruit the five prefectures of Ji, Ping, Luan, Jing, and Ying."

Lu Ning bowed slightly.

These five states are all in the Guannei, but only Jizhou belongs to the category of the sixteen states of Youyun, in addition, Pingzhou is a large state that existed in the former Tang Dynasty, that is, the later Qinhuangdao Lulong, the rest of Luan, Jing, and Ying, all of which are small states, originally Pingzhou, such as Luanzhou, which was placed by the Khitans, Yingzhou, which lost Liaodong Yingzhou in the former Tang Dynasty, was to set up a camp in Hebei to settle the refugees who fled back, and Yelu Abaoji was used to settle the slave households who plundered from Dingzhou.

After thinking about it, Lu Ning said: "Tell the sons and daughters, work harder, and pull out an army tomorrow to deter these five states." ”

Jizhou is good to say, it is very close to Youzhou, Youzhou has been conquered, not to mention the aspirations of the people of Jizhou, if it does not fall, its survival foundation no longer exists, after all, the economy and people's livelihood are dependent on Youzhou.

However, the land of Pingzhou has been occupied by the Khitans since the Later Tang Dynasty, and the Khitans have ruled for a long time, and the eastern section of the Great Wall is not the Ming Great Wall period, and the Khitans come and go freely.

Of course, Youzhou was captured, the Liao lord lost the life and death of the south, and the Khitan land must be extremely panicked, and it is also the time to take the opportunity to expand the results of the war, Pingzhou, as long as a military horse is sent to it, it is not difficult to recover.

As he spoke, Lu Ning looked at the map on the table, and had a plan in his heart, and it was difficult to make a decision for a while.

It stands to reason that the war is going on here, it can come to an end, and all you have to do is to fight steadily, stabilize the hearts of the Youyun army and the people, digest it as soon as possible, and prepare to resist the crazy counterattack of the Khitans.

However, Yelu Sage's recklessness gave him a golden opportunity.

Do you want to lead all the cavalry out of the fortress and go straight to Liaozhongjing, which is 300 miles away?

The Shenwu Army should arrive at Juyong Pass in these two days, plus the two-horse or even three-horse cavalry that they can assemble, there are probably more than 20,000 horsemen.

Now that the Liao country has no leader, it will inevitably be chaotic, and it will lead more than 20,000 elite horsemen to take Zhongjing?

Attack Jinzhou and Laizhou with a sailor, and take the land of Zhongjing?

Moreover, in this case, not to mention the expansion of land for hundreds of miles, the counterattack of the Khitans will be completely contained in Zhongjing.

Otherwise, the Khitans counterattacked, and the war was still burning in the clouds, no matter how well they took precautions, the people would also suffer.

However, this move is too dangerous, first of all, it is to go down to Zhongjing, go deep alone, and from then on have to deal with the crazy counterattack of the Khitans, and Yelu Gangsage's reckless advance, it seems that there is no difference.

This move, how much hope is placed on his own backhand, is to find a way to split the Khitan parts, but everything is just an ideal state, and maybe, under Zhongjing, the Khitan people will hate the enemy, but it is not conducive to their next step.

However, if we wait for Yelu Gong Sage to flee back to Liao and recuperate, then it will be necessary to pay more than the current price if he wants to expand his territory again.

In terms of the armament of the Qi army, fighting and defending with the Khitan cavalry is always more convenient than attacking.

Especially in Zhongjing, there are a large number of peasant farms arable land, grassland land, for the time being, their own slave Lu Wanyan department, can also migrate over.

Even if grain is not imported from the Central Plains, there is no big problem with provisions.

In this way, the Land of Clouds can recuperate without the threat of the Khitan, this originally wealthy land with a large population has great potential, but if it is often warned, its potential will be difficult to tap.

Moreover, once it can gain a firm foothold in the Zhongjing area, the war horses will be replenished, etc., and there will be more sources, and the clouds will live and work in peace and contentment, and the national strength will be greatly increased.

But if you want to gain a foothold in Zhongjing, you don't have to think about it to know that you will have to go through countless bloody battles and completely cripple the Khitans, so that they can accept the reality that the land of Zhongjing is difficult to recover.

But now, his tired army, alone stationed in the Khitan land hundreds of miles away, while resisting the repeated onslaught of the Khitan, his own elite soldiers, such a consumption, is very unwise.

In particular, Zhongjing, now Khitan Zhongjing, is different from history, in history, it was not until several decades later that the Central Plains was built here to be established as the accompanying capital, and, in fact, it replaced Shangjing and became the capital in the real sense after the Liao ruling center moved south.

And now, this Dading City is just a soil city, but because it is the sleeping king's frequent bowl, the grassland in the north of the earth city, is the nomadic land of one of the five courtyards, and with the westward expansion of the Khitan power, this place has gradually become the center of the southern part of Liaodi.

And since it was originally the head of the military state, you can know that the Nanren, Xi, and Bohai farmers here were all slave households of the imperial family.

Zhongjing is now only an earthen city, and Yelu Gangsage originally recruited various tribes to build a city, built the original low earth city high, and was preparing to introduce brick and stone reinforcement, but it was interrupted by the Northern Expedition of the Qi people just after it began to take shape.

Dading City is now such a semi-finished product.

Therefore, the defending side is far from taking advantage of the Central Plains Giant City.

It is not an appropriate place to defend in Zhongjing to deal with the onslaught of the Khitans.

Of course, although the Khitan tribes were unified by Yelu Abaoji, there were also many internal contradictions, and if they could be used, they might not necessarily have to fight with the Khitan clan in Zhongjing.

Speaking of which, whether or not to attack Zhongjing is really a difficult problem now, a strategic issue, and it is sometimes difficult to know right and wrong without practice.

Perhaps, the strategy of attacking Zhongjing and the subsequent operation have achieved a certain success, which will be regarded as a stroke of genius in the history books, or or, after the defeat of the army, the fruits of the previous victory cannot be preserved, and it has become the biggest stupid trick in the history books.

What's more, seven or eight months have passed since he conquered the Northern Han Dynasty, and it is also necessary to recuperate and accumulate strength.

Lu Ning looked at the map outside Senese and gradually looked at a location.

In my heart, I slowly had a plan.