After Zhu Tao was attacked by the Jin army in the Hutuo River, he went north in a panic, and two days later, the army crossed the Juma River and entered the boundary of Youzhou, Zhu Tao was frightened and a little calm, and it was already dusk at this time, so he ordered the army to camp on the spot to rest.

At the same time, Zhu Tao also ordered his eldest son Zhu Ling to go to Huichang County, fifty miles away, to find some food.

Zhu Tao went on the expedition, usually the eldest son stayed in Youzhou, but this time he took the eldest son to the expedition, mainly because this battle was the Zhu family's war to unify Hebei, Zhu Tao hoped that in this battle, the eldest son officially became his own son, laying the foundation for becoming the future lord of Hebei.

However, his strength was not good, and he was defeated by the Jin army.

In fact, Zhu Tao didn't care much about the loss of tens of thousands of troops, the number of troops could be slowly recovered, and Youzhou had gold and silver, so Zhu Tao was not worried about this problem.

Zhu Tao was even more worried about Youzhou City, he rushed all the way back, but he didn't get any news, which really made him very worried.

He hoped that Youzhou would be safe and sound, nothing had happened, but he also knew that this was impossible, Li Wanquan's army had been wiped out, how could Youzhou still be safe and sound?

Before the time, the eldest son Zhu Ling came back, he and the Huichang County Order brought back more than 100 carts of grain and hundreds of fat pigs, and also brought back a news that shocked Zhu Tao, Guo Song, the king of Jin, personally led an army of 60,000 or 70,000 to Youzhou City.

"It's .... When did it happen? Zhu Tao asked in a trembling voice.

The county magistrate of Huichang County trembled and said: "I heard from a businessman who came from Fanyang County three days ago, and it took him two days to come from Fanyang County, which should have been five days ago. ”

It takes about a day to travel from Fanyang County to Youzhou City, and Guo Song's army has already arrived in Youzhou City at least four days ago.

For a while, Zhu Tao was anxious, going back and forth in the big tent, as anxious as an ant on a hot pot.

The military advisor Li Bochang persuaded: "The prince has already sent spies before, and there will be news back soon, and he feels that Youzhou City is tall and strong, and the moat is wide, and even the general ladder siege ladder can't get close, and the city is not so easy to break, so don't worry too much." ”

Zhu Tao sighed and said: "You don't know the power of the iron fire thunder, when I attacked Taiyuan, I encountered an explosion of iron fire and thunder, the sound was like a huge thunder, and the city wall was blown into powder, they only need to row a small boat and transport an iron fire thunder over, they can blow up the city gate, I really suspect that Youzhou City has fallen." ”

"Don't think nonsense, don't wait for the exact news!"

Zhu Tao had no choice but to order his subordinates to kill pigs and cook rice and treat the soldiers well.

...........

At the third watch, Li Bochang was woken up by the soldiers while he was asleep, and he asked in a daze, "What's the matter?" ”

"The prince invited the military advisor over, it seems that something big has happened."

Li Bochang was startled, he didn't feel sleepy, and hurriedly put on his shoes and asked, "What happened specifically?" ”

"I don't know, the prince's own soldiers just said that the spies are back."

Li Bochang immediately guessed that it must be a matter of Youzhou.

He put on his shoes in twos and put on a coat and hurried to Zhu Tao's big tent, and when he entered the big tent, he saw Zhu Tao slumped on the soft couch like a dead fish, and the whole person seemed to be demented.

His eldest son, Zhu Ling, said with a crying voice: "Military Division, there is definite news from Youzhou City, the night before yesterday, Youzhou City has been conquered by Guo Song's army, and Lu Jinsuo led the remnants of the army to retreat eastward. ”

"Is the source reliable?" Li Bochang asked again.

Zhu Ling nodded, "Our spies met a Lang general and a dozen deserters under Lu Jinsuo, and I heard that it was Lang who betrayed Daniel Zhang and opened the city in the middle of the night to let the enemy army into the city. ”

The news should be reliable, Li Bochang glanced at Zhu Tao, "What's wrong with the prince?" ”

As soon as his words fell, Zhu Tao suddenly cried out loud, "My inheritance! Twenty years of hard work! It's all over. ”

Li Bochang stepped forward and persuaded: "Lord, the matter has come to this, there is really no way, as long as we stay in Qingshan, we are not afraid that there will be no chance to kill back in the future, Lord, now is not the time to be sad, Guo Song will not let us go, and if we don't leave, the whole army will be wiped out." ”

"Let's go?"

Zhu Tao wiped away his tears and asked, "Where else can I go now?" ”

"The prince now has two choices, one is to turn around and go south, cross the Yellow River to join the Son of Heaven in Luoyang, and the second choice is to go to Liaodong, where the little prince is still there!"

"If I go south, can Tian Yue let me go?"

Li Bochang shook his head, "I don't think it's very likely." ”

Zhu Tao jumped up and shouted, "Then go to Liaodong!" ”

That night, the 16,000 Yan troops set out after a full meal, and they did not dare to go to Youzhou City, but marched in the direction of Pingzhou to the east.

Three days later, Zhu Tao's army arrived in Lulong City, Lu Jinsuo came out crying to greet him, Pingzhou is east of today's Tangshan, there is an army of 3,000 people stationed here, plus more than 1,000 remnants of Lu Jinsuo's army, a total of more than 4,000 people, after the army converged, Zhu Tao's army reached 20,000 people.

At this moment, the spies came with news that Guo Song, the king of Jin, was leading an army of 50,000 to kill in the direction of Pingzhou.

Zhu Tao was shocked, he did not dare to stay in Pingzhou any longer, and hurriedly led 20,000 troops to withdraw to Yingzhou in Liaodong, and ordered Lu Jinsuo to lead 5,000 troops to hold Yuguan.

A day later, Guo Song arrived in Pingzhou with an army of 50,000.

Pingzhou has a small population, because it is the throat of Liaodong, since the Sui Dynasty, a large number of military facilities have been built here, in addition, it is also the location of the largest iron mine in the Youyan area, and the pig iron of the Yan army is supplied here.

At this time, there was no longer Zhu Tao's army in Pingzhou, and Guo Song led a large army to Lulong County, and Zhang Jian, the chief historian, Sima Lin, and a group of officials such as the county commander and the county Cheng all went out of the city to surrender to the Jin army.

Guo Song did not embarrass them, but comforted them with kind words and ordered them to continue to hold their posts, and he immediately ordered the army to be stationed outside the city, and he himself led 3,000 soldiers into Lulong County.

Lulong County is also a strong big city, the population in the city is only more than 30,000 people, basically concentrated in the south, and the north of the city is warehouses, barracks and other military facilities, there are two large barracks alone, each barracks can be stationed at least 30,000 people, and dense barracks are built in the barracks.

It can be seen that Zhu Tao's army withdrew in a hurry, the barracks were in a mess, and there were still a lot of weapons, grain and grass left in the small warehouse of the barracks.

Guo Song was not very interested in the barracks, so he immediately came to the warehouse.

"How much grain and grass is left in the warehouse?" Guo Song asked.

Thorn Shi Zhang Jian hurriedly said: "Back to His Highness, there is not much grain and grass, there were originally 100,000 stone of grain and 80,000 quintals of forage, but Zhu Tao took most of it with him when he withdrew, and now there are only 20,000 stone of grain and 30,000 quintals of forage left?" ”

Guo Song frowned, and asked puzzledly: "He only has a total of 20,000 troops, how can he carry so much grain and grass?" ”

"Your Highness doesn't know that Zhu Tao was transported north by ship, and he left with twenty cargo ships of 3,000 stones."

"There are still ships in Pingzhou?" Guo Song was surprised.

"Originally, there was none, but Zhu Zhu brought a lot of money, grain and materials from Yangzhou, and twenty sea ships of 3,000 stones were detained by King Yan, and a wharf was built at the mouth of the Wei River, and the ships were parked there."

"And now?" Guo Song asked.

Zhang Jian shook his head, "There are only some fishing boats left, and the cargo ships have gone to Liaodong, I'm afraid they won't come back." ”

"Is there still pig iron in the warehouse?"

"The pig iron was transported to Liaodong before, and now the mine is out of production, the miners have gone home, and there are only 500,000 catties of blister copper left in the warehouse, ready to be sent to Youzhou to mint money."

"And what's in the warehouse?"

Zhang Jian thought for a while and said: "There is also salt, the largest salt field in the Youyan area is also in Pingzhou, on the south coast, there are 200,000 acres of salt fields, and there are more than a dozen salt warehouses at the mouth of the river, it is said that there are hundreds of thousands of stones of sea salt. ”

Guo Song suddenly realized that they were still a little passive, the other party could actually come by sea, but he couldn't go by sea.

..........

Guo Song only stayed for one day in Pinglu County, and the next morning, he led 10,000 cavalry to Yuguan to inspect.

Yuguan is the entrance of the corridor in western Liaoning, leaning on Yanshan Mountain in the north, facing the sea in the east, it is a city built with big bluestone, cutting off the road to Liaodong in the north, Yuguan is built on the mountainside, the terrain is higher, and occupies a condescending advantage.

However, Guo Song has no plans to go north to Liaodong for the time being, and the situation in Liaodong is very complicated, not just Zhu Tao's 20,000 remnants of the army.

Liaodong also involved the four major forces of the Khitan, Xi, Silla and Balhae States, especially the Khitan and Silla, the Khitan had begun to rise and gradually controlled the Xi people, and it was Zhu Tao's biggest supporter.

There is also Silla, the Tang Dynasty was expelled from the Korean Peninsula by Silla shortly after the outbreak of the Anshi Rebellion, and although the north of the Taedong River was still nominally Tang territory, it was actually controlled by the Goguryeo and Silla people, but the Goguryeo people did not restore the country.

The strength of the Bohai State was also very strong, and it cooperated with the Goguryeo people to contain the ambitions of the Khitans.

Zhu Tao led 20,000 troops north to Liaodong this time, and he will undoubtedly become a catfish that stirs up the situation in Liaodong, especially with the remnants of the Goguryeo people and the Khitans, and there are constant conflicts of interest, Zhu Tao's Liaodong territory and the Goguryeo people also have conflicts of interest, Zhu Tao has his back to the Khitan, and he will definitely become the Khitans' thugs against the Goguryeo and Silla.

Guo Song did not have the energy to take care of Liaodong at present, as long as he held Pingzhou and prevented Zhu Tao from going south to Youyan again, this eastern crusade would be considered a success.