If the capital is the clouds of war in the sky, then Hebei Road is now burning with war. Wanyan Zongwang, who was in charge of the eastern front, divided his 200,000 troops into five routes, preparing to open four passages and go straight to the capital. One of the routes was led by Wanyan Xiebao and went straight to Zhaozhou.

Wanyan Xianbao is the second son of Wanyan Zonghan, and it stands to reason that he should follow his father's expedition to the west, but I don't know what the reason is, Marshal Wanyan Xianbao also handed over Wanyan Xianbao to Wanyan Zongwang and placed him in the Eastern Expeditionary Army.

In fact, it is not difficult to understand that Wanyan Xian also arranged it in this way, it is completely a kind of care for Wanyan Zonghan, father and son are in the two armies, no matter which way they make military achievements, father and son can get honors. Of course, in a sense, it can also be regarded as a kind of constraint on Wan Yan Zonghan.

Wanyan Xiebao led an army of 40,000 for the first time, which was also a severe test for this young general in his early twenties. Among the young generation of generals, Wanyan Xianbao is also a leader, and his force value should be ranked in the top three, and he also has a strategy, if he talks about the shortcomings, it is that he is short-tempered and impulsive, a little stubborn and self-serving, and it is difficult to listen to the opinions of others.

Among the 40,000 troops commanded by Wanyan Xianbao, there are only 10,000 Jurchen warriors, and the remaining 30,000 are the 10,000 Liaodi Han army led by Huang Liuhe, the 10,000 Khitan soldiers led by Xiao Zhiji, the 10,000 Bohai Navy led by Gaozhuang Town, and the 10,000 Goryeo Army led by Li Zhixun.

Although there are only 10,000 Jurchen warriors, these four commanders are all resourceful, mature and steady generals, and they came to obey Wanyan Xianbao, which shows that Wanyan Zongwang attaches great importance to this nephew, after all, if Wanyan Xianbao makes some mistakes, he will not be able to explain to Wanyan Zonghan.

In the seventh year of Xuanhe, on July 15, Han Shizhong led a thousand cavalry to patrol the Hutuo River, which is also the only cavalry in Zhaozhou City, this thousand cavalry is transferred from the Longwei army, otherwise where does the cavalry from the small Zhaozhou City come from, and they can't afford to raise it! You must know that raising a thousand cavalry costs more than five thousand infantry.

Moreover, these thousand cavalry are not ordinary cavalry, they are a combination of five types of troops, namely the Benlei Army, the Flame Army, the Wind Shadow Army, the Destruction Army, and the Wild Wolf Army. Originally, the five arms were all based on the establishment of 6,000 people, and finally formed 30,000 cavalry. However, a holy decree of the official family divided the 30,000 Longwei army into three parts, and in this case, these five arms were also reduced to zero and appeared in the three teams.

This time, the 10,000 cavalry led by Yue Fei was stationed in Shanzhou, which was only less than 100 miles away from the capital, and 1,000 of them were dispatched to support Zhaozhou. Then, a thousand forbidden troops were dispatched locally to replenish it.

It was obviously not a good day, and it started to rain before dawn, although it was not very heavy, but it was raining all the time. If it was usual, Han Shizhong would not have patrolled the Hutuo River, but now that the war has burned, he does not dare to be careless in this case, and strengthens preparations for war to meet the incoming enemy.

In the rain, the march speed of the thousand cavalry is not very fast, in the process of patrolling the north bank of the river, you can see that there are people constantly crossing the river and returning to the south, I don't know how many people have seen this scene, the soldiers have seen it often, and they did not take it seriously.

After the hour came, the rain began to fall heavily, and a torrential rain fell from the sky, followed by lightning and thunder, and a strong wind. The speed of the people crossing the river became faster, and I don't know why there was panic behind them. And this panic is getting more and more intense, which gives Han Shizhong a bad premonition,

Han Shizhong said to Su Yunge, the head of the capital: "You lead a few brothers to the front to check and see what is going on." ”

Is it possible that the Jin Army is coming? This terrible thought appeared in Han Shizhong's mind, and he reorganized his army and was ready to meet it at any time.

Sure enough, it didn't take long for Su Yunge to come back, and he shouted loudly: "General, about ten miles away, there should be about 10,000 Jinjun." But they are all infantry, and they are not very fast. ”

How could you encounter the Jin Army? In fact, at this time, Han Shizhong didn't have to be nervous at all, he was a cavalryman, and he could easily get rid of the Jin army. In that case, however, the people who tried to cross the river would have suffered.

In order to cover the common people crossing the river, Han Shizhong decided to face the battle, and he shouted loudly: "Liang Qi, lead your subordinates to hurry up and escort the common people across the river, and the others will follow me to meet the Jin army." ”

When he heard that this Jin army was infantry, Han Shizhong knew that this was a Han army that was not very strong in combat, and although he couldn't eat this army, there would definitely be a battle.

Soon, the cavalry put out the Yanling formation, which was an offensive formation, and it was obvious that in the face of 10,000 infantry, Han Shizhong chose to attack, he just wanted to defeat the arrogance of the Jin army.

The thousand cavalry were divided into five squads, each team had a team leader, three of them were Han Shizhong's cronies, and two were the original heads of the Long Wei army.

Among them, Zhou Liang, the head of the Flame Army, thought for a long time, and finally mustered up the courage to say to Han Shizhong: "In general, when the Jin army fights, the cavalry is often in front and the infantry is behind, and it is rare for the infantry to fight alone. In particular, this kind of tens of thousands of infantry is even more unreasonable, and he is afraid that there will be fraud in this, and he hopes that the general will think twice. Besides, in the rain, the flame army is useless, this battle, if we and 10,000 infantry clash hard, once entangled by the Jin army, then it will be very troublesome, prepare for suspicion, the cavalry of the Jin army should not be very far away, and they may be killed at any time. ”

Han Shizhong cast an appreciative look at Zhou Liang, and he said: "It's good that you can see this, it shows that you are attentive." It is true that the Jin army will not discharge 10,000 infantry alone, and there must be cavalry not far away. Once entangled, it's hard to get out. I understand all this, but in order to cover the common people crossing the river, this battle must be fought. Besides, our cavalry is fast, surprisingly victorious, shocking the Jin army, and then quickly retreating to the city, not to entangle with the Jin army, even if their cavalry kills it, it will be useless. As for what you said about the Flame Army not being able to play a role in the rain, it is true that this point is not well thought out by this officer. In this way, the Pyro changed their bows and arrows, and at the back of the line, launched a long-range attack on the enemy. ”

Just when the cavalry adjusted their formation, the 10,000 Jin army slaughtered them in a mighty manner, and this encounter was purely an accident. Originally, the 10,000 infantry were preparing to conquer Mixian in the west of Zhaozhou, which was a small county town with only 2,000 troops, but the geographical location was very important, and it was possible to transit it as a logistical support for the Jin army. This is also the reason why Huang Liuhe led the army to pull over, he didn't expect to encounter the Song army at all, but this guy is not afraid of the thousand cavalry on the opposite side at all, after all, dozens of miles away from him is the Khitan cavalry, which may be killed at any time.

Mixian is small, but the walls are very high, and they are easy to defend and difficult to attack, so the cavalry is not useful at all, which is why there are all infantry. It's just that due to the rain, this army went a fork in the road, and although it didn't deviate far, it encountered Han Shizhong's cavalry.

After seeing the cavalry on the opposite side, Huang Liuji ordered the formation to be arranged. After all, for the infantry, the best way to fight against the cavalry is to set up the formation, as long as the large formation is not crushed, then it will be difficult for the cavalry to give full play to the advantage, and it will be even more difficult to live to win, after all, there is a tenfold gap between the two sides in numbers.

Once the infantry set up a defensive array, then it is a big trouble for the attacking cavalry, dense flying arrows fall from the sky, as long as the cavalry rushes over, there will be a piece of shooting, and this ten-fold gap situation, the cavalry rushes over is even more difficult.

Han Shizhong had long expected this, when he was sprinting with cavalry, he had already made a good deployment, and at the forefront of the charge was the two hundred Benlei Army, this kind of heavy cavalry was not afraid of arrows at all, and after the speed of their sprint, it was like a heavy tank, which would have a great impact on the infantry.

When he saw that the other party was a heavily armored cavalry armed to the teeth, Huang Liuji knew that it was not good, this guy was not afraid of arrows at all, and suddenly he was absolutely sure that his previous formation was somewhat wrong, there were too many archers in front, and he knew that he should prepare more swords and axes, but now it was too late to adjust, so he could only hold on.

The Ben Lei Army rushed forward with a thunderous momentum, and the dense crossbow arrows did not bring a little damage, but only delayed the attack speed a little, and this torrent of steel crashed heavily into the Jin Army, and soon tore a hole in the opponent's defensive array.

On the battlefield, the heavy armored cavalry will always be a nightmare for the infantry, seeing that the large array was rushed away, Huang Liuji did not panic, and immediately organized the infantry to carry out the encirclement, after all, there are only two hundred heavy armored cavalry, as long as they are trapped in the center, they will definitely be annihilated.

The ideal is very plump, and the reality is very skinny. Just when the Jin army was encircling and wanted to trap the Ben Lei army, the wind shadow army, which was as fast as the wind, rushed over with lightning speed, and this group of guys clamped their legs around the horse's belly, stabilized their bodies, and then shot at the Jin army with a bow and crossbow.

The quality of the Jin army is very high, and once they are not panicked in the face of the sudden Wind Shadow Army, part of the Jin Army opens their bows and arrows to shoot at the Wind Shadow Army, and part of them begin to encircle and surround this light armored cavalry.

At this time, the heavily armored cavalry trapped in it began to reverse and surprise outward, with no intention of continuing to charge at all. Like a rhinoceros besieged by wolves, this group of guys is going on a rampage without fear.

There was a certain degree of confusion in the front army of the Jin army, and Huang Liuji was furious, and ordered the Chinese army to quickly press up to trap the enemy. But at this time, the wolf army, the destruction army, covered up and killed one left and one right.

At this time, Huang Liuji found out that he had been fooled, it was obvious that this cavalry had no intention of fighting with him at all, but was just delaying time here, and he was furious and ordered the front army and the Chinese army to form a big pocket to trap this Song army cavalry.

If it was delayed any longer, this cavalry would be trapped in the formation, and Han Shizhong issued a reversal order without hesitation. The extremely fast Wind Shadow Army was the first to break through the encirclement and get rid of the entanglement of the Jin Army. After breaking out of the encirclement, he used his extremely fast speed to keep a distance of 200 paces from the Jin army, and began to attack the Jin army with bows and arrows.

The Wind Shadow Army shoots at the Jin Army in rapid movement, causing great damage to the Jin Army. In turn, the Wind Shadow Army floated in position and was always moving so fast that it was difficult for the Golden Army to shoot them.

The Wind Shadow Army's strategy played a great role, containing the strength of the Jin Army, so that the Ben Lei Army quickly tore open a hole and rushed out, destroying the Rotten Army, and the Wild Wolf Army rushed out after it.

After breaking out of the encirclement of the Jin army, the Benlei army broke behind and blocked the rapid advance of the Jin army.

At this time, there was a low bull's horn not far away, followed by the sound of dense horse hooves, and it seemed that the cavalry of the Jin Kingdom had killed.

Retreat, retreat, this retreat Han Shizhong still made a fatal mistake, the Benlei Army belongs to the heavy armored cavalry, and the durability is poor, coupled with the heavy rain in the sky, the physical consumption of the war horse is too fast, the speed is too slow, and it is difficult to get rid of the enemy if it is broken. If it was just infantry, now the cavalry of the Jin Kingdom rushed over like a tiger coming down the mountain, and the speed was obviously much faster than that of the Benlei army.

Seeing the cavalry of the Jin Kingdom roaring all over the mountains, Han Shizhong realized that he had made a fatal mistake, so he ordered the Wind Shadow Army to meet the Benlei Army, and the other troops quickly retreated.

With the response of the Wind Shadow Army, the Ben Lei Army was not trapped by the Jin Army. But at this time, the shortcomings of the Wind Shadow Army were exposed, that is, the defense was too poor, and when facing an enemy several times their size, they could only be beaten passively, and they could not show their mobility at all.

Can't leave his teammates behind, after the Thunder Army rushed out, he turned around and rushed hard to respond to the retreat of the Wind Shadow Army. But at this time, there are more and more cavalry of the Jin Kingdom, and if they continue to fight like this, both the Benlei Army and the Wind Shadow Army will be annihilated.

In desperation, Han Shizhong had to order the Wolf Army and the Destruction Army to come back to help, and in this way, the four cavalry echoed each other from afar, and it was difficult to tear apart the Jin Army several times his own, and the retreat speed was very slow.

Fortunately, the city of Zhaozhou was very close, and in the end, after losing half of the cavalry, this calamitous cavalry withdrew to Zhaozhou. This was the most painful defeat after the formation of the Longwei Army, with more than half of the casualties. Immediately, the Jin army besieged the city of Zhaozhou.

This battle seriously destroyed Han Shizhong's confidence, and when the Pan family handed over a thousand cavalry to him, although he didn't say anything, he knew what cavalry meant to the Great Song army. This time, he commanded the cavalry to fight, and the casualties exceeded 500, and the remaining battle was only 46, and the most fatal thing was that the 200 Wind Shadow Army was almost completely wiped out, and the Benlei Army also suffered more than 100 casualties. You must know that these two troops are built with a lot of money, and it is extremely difficult to replenish them. The difficulty of replenishing the heavy armored cavalry is that it is expensive, the heavy armor forging is difficult, and the cavalry is not easy to train, which is easy to overcome. But the key is the Wind Shadow Army, the war horse of this cavalry is from thousands of miles away, and the difficulty of replenishment is beyond imagination, and it is not something that money can solve, especially after the Western Liao army came over, it almost sealed the Hexi Corridor, and there is no supplement of this kind of war horse.

Han Shizhong, who was bored, didn't have time to think about these troubles, because the small Zhaozhou was besieged by tens of thousands of Jin troops, and it lasted for three days at most, and once the city was broken, the whole army was doomed.

Zhou Liang, the head of the Flame Army, also has an identity, that is, the supervisor of the Dragon Soul Society, he witnessed this defeat, and also saw Han Shizhong's frustration, at this time, if you want not to annihilate the whole army, you must cheer up the whole army, otherwise Zhaozhou will become a grave.

Zhou Liang found Han Shizhong, and he said very sincerely: "General, although our Longwei army has suffered more than half of the casualties this time, the Jin infantry killed more than 3,000 and the cavalry more than 700 have been killed, which can be regarded as an explanation, and it cannot be regarded as defeat." Moreover, because of the heavy rain, the Flame Army was unable to play to its advantages, which was also the reason. Zhaozhou is destined to not be able to hold it, and since the Jin army has sent troops, there will not be only this way, there are no reinforcements around us, we must break through tonight, if it is after dawn, the Jin army will attack the city, at that time, I can't go if I want to. ”

"Yes, breakout." Han Shizhong also made up his mind, the defeat is not terrible, if the whole army is annihilated, then he can only apologize with death, he glanced at Zhou Liang and said: "Break through, where are we going?" Crossing the Yellow River to the capital to report the news, or go west. ”

Zhou Liang was so smart, he immediately understood that Han Shizhong was digging a hole for himself, if he said that he was going west, maybe this guy would dispose of himself. In his bones, Han Shizhong is still an official of the imperial court, and he will not serve Qin Guogong, after all, this is the overall situation, and most of the generals in the world have this mentality, and there is nothing right or wrong.

After thinking for a while, Zhou Liang said: "It's all up to the general. ”

Han Shizhong was very satisfied with Zhou Liang's attitude, but he didn't know that he had lost a lot of points in the comments of the Dragon Soul Society, which was why he had repeatedly made military exploits later, but his promotion was very slow. After all, among the Liu family, loyalty comes first.

There was no time to think too much, Han Shizhong ordered the whole army to rest early, get up on the third watch, and break through on the fourth watch.

Why did he choose the fourth watch to break through, Han Shizhong had a consideration, although the heavy rain during the day, although it gradually became smaller, it seems that it will stop in the second half of the night, but the Jin army is encamped, and it takes a long time for the army to rectify, basically you can sleep late at night, and you will be more sleepy during the fourth watch, and your vigilance will be the most lax.

Sure enough, the commander of the Jin army, Wanyan Xianbao, was very dissatisfied with this battle, annihilating the Song army by a little more than 500, but the loss here was more than 3,007, how to explain this to the second prince. Although the casualties this time were concentrated in the Han people of Liaodi and the Xi soldiers, after all, the casualties were too large, and it was still difficult to explain.

In the face of Wanyan Xianbao's roar, Huang Liuji, Xiao Zhiji, and Li Zhixun, the three captains, were silent, as if they hadn't heard it. Quarrels are quarrels, the battle will continue, taking Zhaozhou is the top priority, and everything else is nonsense.

Wanyan Xianbao was very dissatisfied with Huang Liuji's defeat, and he said angrily: "You Han troops are all waste, rice buckets, tomorrow morning as the first echelon of the siege, if you can't take Zhaozhou City, you will not be spared." ”

Huang Liuji was dissatisfied in his heart, but after all, he was defeated, and he didn't dare to refute it, so he could only go down and prepare. However, this guy held his breath and was a little slack when arming. The key is that the place where the Han army is stationed is close to the river, and it is still raining lightly, even if the main general is not slack, the soldiers below will slack.

The loss in this battle was more than 3,000, which had a great impact on this army composed of Liaodi Han people, and now it can be said that the morale is low, and the soldiers are very lazy, and they don't look like the Jin army at all, but like the Great Song Xiang Army with extremely poor combat effectiveness.

Although he was furious, Wanyan Xianbao still didn't take Zhaozhou seriously, in his opinion, after dawn, as long as it was the life of the three armies, he could capture this small city in one day. Wanyan Xianbao is notoriously greedy for money, and this guy is now starting to fantasize about how to loot money after entering the city.

It is no wonder that Wanyan Xianbao has the idea of looting money, mainly because it has a lot to do with the military system of the Jin State. Generally speaking, the Jin country is still in a slave society, and the army is also selected by the warriors in the tribe, and there is no military salary, and even war horses and armor need to be provided by the tribe. The spoils of war will be distributed according to the rank, of course, as the main general after taking a city, it is destined to divide the lion's share, this system has changed a little bit in the era of Jin Taizong Wanyan Wu begging, but the change is not much, it is still mainly plundered, which is why the Jin army has always been known for looting the city.

The Jin army camped very carefully this time, that is, it blocked the east, south and north sides of Zhaozhou City, of course, there are only three city gates in this city, and the west side without city gates does not need to be defended. Besides, today is the first day, and there is no siege yet, at most, the Song army has gone out of the city to ask for help, which has little impact, because what the Jin army is best at is to encircle the point to send reinforcements, and the more reinforcements the Song army comes, the better.

The Jin army also did not think that on the first day, before the siege of the city and the Song army, they would abandon the city and flee, so the Jin army did not surround the city of Zhaozhou, but surrounded the east, south, and north. It was just a barricade on the west side, with hundreds of patrolling soldiers.

As long as the Song army leaves the city, even if it escapes from the west, it will disturb the Jin army, and the highly mobile Jin army can soon start a war of annihilation in the west.

On the third watch, the soldiers of Zhaozhou City began to get up one after another, the cooks began to cook, and the generals were also busy one after another. Han Shizhong was even more accurately arranged to break through, the reason why he chose to break through when the Jin army had not yet attacked the city, there is a very important reason for this, that is, Zhaozhou City became a lonely city more than a month ago, and the people have already moved away, and there are only a few thousand elite soldiers left in this city, and it can be said that there is no burden when breaking through. It's just that there are only four or five hundred cavalry in it, and the remaining seven thousand are infantry, once they are entangled with the Jin army when they break through, it is unknown how many people will be able to break through in the end.

It is unknown whether he can break through or not, what Han Shizhong is worried about is not this, what he is most worried about is that he will give up Zhaozhou City and escape, what will the group of ministers in the political hall think, what will Qin Guogong think of you, and what is the attitude of the official family.

Obviously, breaking through is not a very good choice, Han Shizhong chose to break through not because he was afraid of death, but he had to attract the attention of the imperial court through the incident in Zhaozhou, if the imperial court could not arrange troops to Hebei as soon as possible, then it was not only the dead Hebei Road that was lost, the Jin army was likely to go south to the capital.

Han Shizhong knew what it would mean once the Jin army came to the capital, and it would be the fall of the Great Song Dynasty. For the sake of the country and the world, he would rather bear the notoriety of abandoning the city and fleeing than have a crisis in the imperial court.

Zhou Liang knew that Han Shizhong was hesitant, and he didn't want to persuade the other party to anything, this time he abandoned the city and fled, on the surface, it was a sign of cowardice and timidity, but in fact, it was very important for the Great Song Dynasty and for the lord. Because it was not only Zhaozhou that was lost, but the illusion of the imperial court about the Jin army.

At the third watch, the army was already ready outside the east gate, and the reason why the east gate was chosen this time was because the members of the dragon claw had already found out clearly, and the east was the camp of the Han army in Liaodi. This team had experienced a tragic defeat of 3,000 soldiers during the day, and the morale of the army was weakened and demoralized, and it was obvious that it was appropriate to break through from here. In addition to this, there was a problem that there was a huge hole in the team's encampment, revealing a road several feet wide near the edge of the river. That is, this is enough, besides, the soldiers are loosely defended, and the frequency of patrols is low.

Breaking through the siege, Zhou Liang said to Zhang San, the leader of the dragon claw team: "You are responsible for solving the roadblocks in front of you, as well as the outermost sentry, and then lurk in to prevent fire, muddy the water, to cover the breakthrough of the army, and after that, then you will have your own destiny." ”

"Don't worry."

The Dragonclaw team has always carried out extremely dangerous missions, and every member is prepared to sacrifice, and this group of members is an outstanding warrior, much stronger than the combat effectiveness of ordinary soldiers.

As the city gate slowly opened a gap, Zhang San left the city with twenty members, and soon disappeared into the vast night.

There is no moat in Zhaozhou City, not even a moat. Despite this, the members of the Dragonclaw team are still very slow, for fear of startling the snake. Dressed in black night clothes, they blended in with the darkness of the night, like ghosts of the night, and in about a quarter of an hour they came to the front of the camp of the golden army.

The white flower snake Zhang San had already figured out that the patrol of the Jin Army was patrolling every quarter of an hour, and it was an infantry patrol, and the speed was not fast. Now the patrol team has only been gone for a long time, and the next team will be separated by a long time, at this time he did not hesitate, and after telling his subordinates to move in sign language, this guy took the lead through the barricade and entered the camp of the Jin army. The next twenty members also went in one after another.

Like ghosts in the night, the Dragonclaw members rushed to the side of the confused defenders, covering each other's mouths with their left hands, and the sharp knives in their hands either stabbed into the chest or cut their necks, with clean movements and no movement.

After taking out the sentry, the Dragonclaw members quickly cleared the barricades.

"Xiao Gou, you lead the first team to pass from the left, and I lead the second team to pass from the right."

The two teams split up, and one by one the tents were set on fire. After completing the task, the Dragon Claw members quickly disappeared into the vast night, their destination was the capital, as for whether Han Shizhong and the others could break through successfully, it depended on Creation.

After seeing the fire in the sky, the Benlei army took the lead in charging at the front, followed by the other cavalry, and the rear soldiers were 7,000 infantry.