This time the operation to arrest Zheng Zongnan was planned and led by Sun Tu, and the reason why he chose such a time-consuming and laborious method was also because he accepted the lesson of Lao Guan who died calmly in front of everyone, in order to prevent him from taking poison and committing suicide, he asked his colleague and friend Mai Liang to send him a wine with sweat medicine, and after turning it over, he could easily get rid of the hidden danger, making it difficult for him to die.

In the case that he couldn't seek death, Zheng Zongnan's last retreat was completely cut off. Although he gritted his teeth and insisted at first, Sun Tu would not be polite to him, and immediately ordered torture to extract a confession. After a night's tricks, his whole body has been peeled open, just like a blood gourd, but his mind is still clear, and he has no worries about his life.

It was only at this time that Zheng Zongnan really understood his situation, and in the desperate situation of not being able to die but to live and suffer, he finally chose to give in. After all, he is not a real Khitan, but a Han from the north, and his loyalty to the Liao State is not too strong. In addition, he has been lurking in the Song Kingdom for many years, and he has become accustomed to the peaceful life in front of him, and the ambition when he was ordered to come has long been wiped out, and he can only make the most beneficial choice at this moment.

With his opening, there was a lot of noise and chaos in the Yanmen Pass. To tell the truth, even Tian Boyuan never thought that there were so many Liao spies hidden under his nose, not only those who had only come for a short time, but even there were seven or eight spies who had been hidden for a long time in Guancheng, and one of them was an officer at the north gate of Yanmen Pass.

After taking down the person and finding conclusive evidence, Tian Boyuan felt even more afraid. Because once they really collude inside and outside and find an opportunity, I am afraid that the Yanmen Gate will be occupied by them in an instant, and then if they want to hold the gate, they will have to pay an extremely heavy price. Moreover, during this period, I am afraid that the grain and grass stored here will also be deliberately destroyed, which will inevitably hit the morale of the front-line team hard, and even completely determine the defeat of the Song army in the Northern Expedition.

Fortunately, now with the help of Sun Tu, these hidden dangers have been eliminated one by one, which finally puts people at ease, and also makes Tian Boyuan and other generals more and more respectful and grateful to Sun Tu. But Sun Tu was not too happy, but was still worried: "Although the Liao people in Yanmen Pass have been eliminated, everything can be guaranteed." But the current predicament has not yet been resolved, the elite Liao army is still waiting to hunt outside, and our grain baggage is afraid that it will still not be transported to the front line. ”

Indeed, although Zheng Zongnan also explained the method of liaison with the Liao army outside, when Sun Tu proposed to simply plan and take this opportunity to introduce the enemy into Guancheng, and then set up an ambush to gather and annihilate him, Du Changguo tried his best to refuse.

His reason is also quite reasonable, if there is a mistake, the Yanmen Pass is really broken and falls into the hands of the Liao, but no one can afford the consequences. Even if Sun Tu thought that this was completely a ploy to close the door and fight the dog, the enemy was completely unprepared, and once he was ambushed from all sides, he would inevitably collapse instantly. But he still couldn't convince the overseer, and then he said with a serious expression: "What if? How important is Yanmen Pass, how can you ignore the safety here because you are greedy for merit? If there is really a bad thing, it is not something that you and me, and everyone in this level can bear! ”

As soon as he said this, even Tian Boyuan began to waver, and he naturally knew very well the importance of Yanmen Pass to the entire Great Song Dynasty, even if it was only a slight possibility, they would not dare to take risks. So in the end, this policy can only be nullified.

And then they decided to ambush the north of Yanmen Pass, and then lead the Liao soldiers to come, and then suddenly kill the strategy ended in failure. Although they did use the method of communication explained by Zheng Zongnan, the letter that was shot out was not touched all night, so the Liao people had no idea of capturing Yanmen Pass at all?

After a few more days of waiting, this strategy had to be abandoned. In this way, there is only one last way left in front of Sun Tu and them - throw the bait and lure the enemy to the bait!

It's just that this time, even Tian Boyuan couldn't accept it: "General Sun, your method is too risky." If you bring the soldiers of the Tiger Ben Army to the north as a team to escort grain and grass, and after attracting the Liao soldiers to attack you, and then use the wolf smoke as a letter to let the subordinate lead the army to rescue, then have you ever thought about what the result will be if there is a difference in the middle, I will be one step late, or if you can't hold it? ”

"Yes, Yuehou, this matter is too dangerous, please think twice." Even Du Changguo, who had some opinions about him, tried his best to dissuade him: "In my opinion, now that the front line should already know that there is something wrong in the rear, then they will definitely send troops and horses to search for the whereabouts of those Liao people and completely annihilate them, so why take such a big risk?" You have already made a lot of contributions to the court, so why should you care about such a small matter? ”

Sun Tu squinted and glanced at him: "This is a trivial matter?" Now that the war on the front line is about to break out, and then transferring troops and horses to the south will only add countless troubles to Tong Shuai and them, and if this leads to the defeat of the decisive battle, our guilt will be great. Although my grandson is not talented, since he has come here, I should do my best to help the front line solve the trouble. What's more, even if our Tiger Army is useless, it is not difficult to stop the Liao Army of the same strength for a day or two. As long as General Tian can lead his troops to arrive during this period, he can completely eliminate this Liao army. ”

Seeing that Sun Tu had completely made up his mind, Tian Boyuan and Du Changguo finally stopped persuading each other, so they could only clasp their fists and say: "Since General Sun is so dedicated to the country, we can only listen to your wishes, and make full preparations." ”

"Hehe, you don't have to worry too much, as long as we let our army have more arrows, plus we are prepared to fight, nothing will go wrong." Sun Tu smiled with satisfaction and put forward his own request.

In this regard, Tian Boyuan was full of promises, and immediately asked people to open the warehouse, and transferred a large part of the bows and crossbows and arrows hoarded here to the entire Tiger Army. It is said that the 5,000 Tiger Army itself is a forbidden army, both weapons and armor are far superior to ordinary Song troops, and even the bow and crossbow equipment can almost reach one for five people. And now, after receiving the supply from Yanmen Pass, this number has reached the point where the average of two people has a bow and crossbow.

With only this kind of bow and crossbow equipment, Sun Tu believed that even if he encountered a strong enemy, as long as he found a dangerous place for them to guard, it would be enough to defend for seven or eight days.

Now that the plan has been decided and everything has been arranged, Sun Tu will no longer stay, and immediately lead 5,000 tiger troops out of the customs and embark on the road to the north. However, the difference from when they came here is that their attire has changed again, except for a thousand soldiers and horses, everyone else has changed into the clothes of ordinary people, pretending to be people's husbands, and they also pushed their carts on the road. Of course, these soldiers were only dressed in cloth on the outside, but they were all in armor on the inside. And the cars are all weapons and arrows. If the enemy does not come, as long as they dare to attack the grain transport team as before, they will be greeted by the fiercest counterattack, as well as the defenders of Yanmen Pass!

If it was said that catching spies in the customs before was fox hunting, then this operation Sun Tu can be called wolf hunting. What he wants to hunt is the group of wild wolves of the Liao Kingdom that wander in the wilderness in the north, their whereabouts are uncertain, but they are fierce and cunning!

In fact, the person who wants to hunt wolves is not only him, but Qin Dang, who came from the front line with a military order, is more eager to find and annihilate this Liao army than him.

But what made him feel tormented was that for several days, he had not even touched the shadow of the Liao army, let alone found its whereabouts.

In fact, Qin Kang had already put enough effort into it, and his scouts and spies were also hard enough, and they had carefully searched the area within a radius of nearly two hundred miles from the front line, although they did find some traces of the Liao army garrison, but after following this clue to check down, they often found nothing.

At this time, he had already understood that the chief general of the Liao army was also a cautious person, and he was the most proficient in stealth, and even kept watch out for the encirclement and suppression of the Song army. This naturally made him even more annoyed: "One or two hundred miles further south, they are about to reach the area of Yanmen Pass, do you say they will be so close to Yanmen?" ”

"It's hard to say, according to the previous clues, they came for the military rations transported from Yanmen, and it is easier to get close to them." Some subordinates casually guessed.

"But there are tens of thousands of garrisons in Yanmen Pass, how can those thousands of Liao troops compete? Since they are guarding against us, they will naturally be guarding against that side as well. Someone else objected.

"No, we overlooked one point. Now most of the defenders in Yanmen Pass are soldiers and horses mobilized later, they don't have the courage of our border army, how dare they go out of the pass at will? Qin Dang suddenly thought of this, and said with a serious expression: "Time is running out, we must go south as soon as possible, and we can't always search everywhere like before, just go to Yanmen Pass first!" ”

When this 20,000-strong Song army rushed south, the other two Song and Liao armies were already very close to each other, and the Liao army, which was more skilled in field warfare, detected their position before the Song army.

When he heard about this, Xiao Yanping, the chief general of the Liao army, suddenly flashed in his eyes: "Does the Song army still dare to send people to transport grain and grass abroad?" ”

"It looked like this was true, and the little one looked at it from a distance, and found that they were all civilians except for a thousand soldiers and horses, and they were also pushing small carts...... "The scout who came to report the news immediately reported.

"Only a thousand people escorted the grain team to the north...... Xiao Yanping's hand rubbed on his giant hard bow, and slowly showed a strange smile: "Do they really treat me as a fool?" It seems that this is just a piece of bait to fish us out. No wonder there is no movement on the Yanmen Pass side now, it should be that our people have been exposed. ”

"Ah...... So, what should I do? "These Liao cavalry are accustomed to solving problems by fighting, and the others only follow the orders of their own commanders.

"It's going to get dark now, so let's wait and see. As long as the opportunity is right, it's not bad to eat this bait. Xiao Yanping smiled murderously and was full of confidence.