Tong Guan arrived in Hajian Province in late April.

In Hejian Mansion, Tong Guan listened to the report of Hou Yi, the pacification envoy of Gaoyang Guanlu and the prefect of Hejian Prefecture.

Hou Yi was obviously fully prepared, and he reported the situation in Hebei to Tong Guan in detail.

In Hou Yi's report, there are mainly two aspects, on the one hand, the current bad situation of the Hebei Forbidden Army, and on the other hand, the bad situation of the materials and equipment of the Hebei Forbidden Army.

After listening to Hou Yi's report, Tong Guan personally went to check the various armies, military grain warehouses and armories in Hebei with some disbelief.

As a result, the difference in the situation shocked Tong Guan very much!

Tong Guan wrote to Zhao Ji overnight:

The ministers obeyed the wise training, paid the north affairs, and tried their best to worry about it, and they were afraid that they would not be able to catch it, and they would live up to the weight of the commission. The ministers came to the north under the edict, and on the starry night, they arrived at Gaoyang Pass on April 23 to prepare for the march. It can be seen that the generals of Heshuo are arrogant and lazy, and do not train the enemy army, and there is no use for what they need. The military rations were coarse and unbearable, and they had to be twisted and dusted, but they only got half of it, and most of them were far away, so it was time-consuming and laborious to transport. The armament is very poor, although it is in Taiyuan, Daimyo, and Kaide, the sealing Chun is insufficient, or not applicable, and the equipment for the construction of the land and the things for the city to defend are all unprepared. Guy Heshuo has not tried to talk about the army for 200 years, and once he is in a hurry, it is quite difficult to blame......

From the letter written by Tong Guan to Zhao Ji, it can be seen that what Tong Guan saw: due to the long-term peacetime, the soldiers of the Hebei forbidden army will be arrogant and lazy, without training, and there is no one in a hundred who can be used.

In short, Tong Guan believes that relying on the Hebei Forbidden Army and Hebei's military supplies and food fortifications to fight the war is probably a mistake.

At this time, Tong Guan's self-confidence was actually seriously hit, and he even regretted advocating the recovery of Yanjing - after all, Tong Guan had led more than 20 years of soldiers, and he still had this knowledge.

It is precisely because of this that Tong Guan, who had been advocating the recovery of Yanyun by force, began to become cautious.

But Tong Guan thought about it, this time he led the army north, not really to start a war with Liao, but just to show his military might, deter Ye Luchun, and hope to recover Yanjing without a fight.

Zhao Ji's order to Tong Guan is actually like this, and Zhao Ji's three strategies for patrolling the border are ironclad evidence.

Thinking like this, Tong Guan felt that the pressure on his shoulders was slightly reduced.

Tong Guan continued to advance north, and also came to Xiongzhou, an important town in northern Xinjiang, where he planned to sit here and use political, diplomatic, military and other means to coordinate and command, hoping to recover Yanjing in one fell swoop.

……

As soon as he arrived in Xiongzhou, Tong Guan convened a meeting of the generals of various armies in the Xuanfu Division.

Xiongzhou Zhizhou and Xuwenxun hurriedly came to the Xuanfu Division to remind Tong Guan and said: "Deputy Xuanfu Cai is still on the way, shall we wait and have a meeting when he comes?" ”

When Tong Guan heard this, he was furious, and reprimanded sharply: "All the soldiers and horses have arrived, how can you sit and wait?" You are still a military general, this matter is not clear, how to lead the troops to march and fight? ”

Actually-

Tong Guan, who had already figured out Cai You's character, first intimidated, and then asked people to find a large group of beauties for Cai You, but Cai You stopped taking a step forward in the Daimyo's Mansion.

In other words, Cai You is "still on the road", which Tong Guan did intentionally, in order to prevent Cai You from getting in his way.

was reprimanded by Tong Guan in court, and He Xu felt very embarrassed, his face was red for a while, and white for a while!

Originally—

He Xu wanted to curry favor with Tong Guan in the name of asking for instructions, but who knew that he accidentally slapped the horse's fart on the horse's leg.

What He Xu didn't know was that there was a great contradiction between Tong Guan and Cai You.

Tong Guan looks down on Cai You from the bottom of his heart - in Tong Guan's eyes, Cai You is a playboy, eating, drinking, prostituting, playing and blowing, and he is very good at everything, but in terms of his ability to do things, he is far worse than his father Cai Jing and his younger brother Cai Ying.

And Cai You is also very disgusted with Tong Guan, feeling that Tong Guan relies on the old and sells the old, and is domineering, so he often speaks ill of Tong Guan in front of Zhao Ji.

He Xu has been a local official all the year round, so where is it clear about the dirtiness between Tong Guan and Cai You, who are the court officials?

He Shu felt that he was very aggrieved, and he felt that Tong Guan didn't take him seriously, he was also the number one in this Xiongzhou, the representative of the Hebei Forbidden Army, how could Tong Guan treat him like this?

Actually, Tong Guan is taking and sucking anger.

First, Tong Guanqi and Xu and others made Hebei like this, and they didn't even have the strength to fight, so that he could capture the great achievement of recovering Yanyun, adding variables.

Second, Tong Guan was very angry when he heard that Cai You was the deputy Xuanfu envoy, which was not clear that Zhao Ji arranged Cai You to monitor him.

What makes Tong Guan even more troublesome is still to come.

At the beginning of the meeting, the seed master Dao expressed his attitude towards the battle of Liao: "Today, I am afraid it will not be easy to raise an army to patrol the border and recruit Yanjing." Now that the Liao Kingdom has been hit hard by the Jurchens, this is like a neighbor's house being robbed, our Great Song Dynasty not only did not go to the rescue, but stepped forward to rob the things in his house, which is not a benevolent act. Moreover, the army division is unknown, and I am afraid that it will be lost. ”

After a pause, the master said again: "The imperial court rashly used troops, and strengthened the division to control the capital. The only way to teach is to do your best to be diligent in the king's affairs. If you get an inch, this is the spirit of the society, the blessing of the official, and the teacher does not dare to take credit. If things don't go well, if there is a little discussion, the responsibility will be returned, and the teacher will not let it be blamed. Today, the teacher made this clear in front of all the generals, so as not to have any future words. ”

The meaning of this is that "I don't agree to fight this battle, and I don't want to be in charge of this capital, but if you have to let me lead the troops to fight, then I will try my best to fight and win, I don't want to work, if I lose, I won't take extra responsibility, I won't give you the black pot, whoever of us is responsible." ”

Tong Guan, including Zhao Ji, actually knew that the Seed Master Dao did not approve of this war.

But Tong Guan didn't expect that the Seed Master Dao would not leave any room for him and the imperial court, and he was going to go to war, and he said such discouraged words.

Tong Guan glanced at the Seed Master Dao, and said coldly: "Today's military, the official family has a successful calculation, and you let the Seed Master Dao serve as the commander of the capital, hoping to use your prestige to deter the Liao army, that's all." The success or failure of the matter is the responsibility of me and the court. ”

Seed Master Dao said to the other generals: "The success or failure of the Liao affair has its own Taishi and the imperial court in charge, have you all heard it?" ", then looked at Tong Guan, and said: "Shidao is about to repair the book and play, the Taishi said this sentence, Shidao should be written in the chapter, please don't blame Taishi." ”

Tong Guan said: "Don't be troublesome, before I come, the official family told us to act in accordance with the three strategies he gave him to resist the enemy, you can take it and see it." ”

After that, Tong Guan waved his hand, and someone showed Zhao Ji's three strategies for patrolling the border to the seed master.

After seeing it, the momentum immediately weakened, and he thought to himself: "It turns out that the official family didn't think about fighting at all, and wanted me to be the commander of the capital, just teach me to be an ornament." ”

The seed master is seventy and two, three years older than Tong Guan.

There is a saying that the older the rivers and lakes, the less courage they have.

The Seed Master Dao, who has fought a double battle and knows the true situation of the Song Army, actually has this meaning.

In addition, although the seed master Dao is a soldier, he is tired of external expansion and only wants to protect the territory and the people.

Therefore, the seed master stubbornly believes that this battle should not be fought.

But—

Then again, although the Seed Master Dao stubbornly believes that this battle should not be fought, he is still ready to do his best to fight this battle.

But what the seed master didn't expect was that he thought too much, and there was no need to fight this battle at all, they came over by trekking through mountains and rivers, in fact, to scare the Liao people.

The master was silent for a while, and said: "How can the micro name of the master compare to the Taishi, and ask the Taishi to lead the whole army and let the master return to the northwest." ”

Tong Guan didn't want to lead the whole army, but Tong Guan clearly knew that Zhao Ji would never allow him to personally lead the army.

Therefore, Tong Guan said: "The official family ordered, do you dare to resign?" ”

The Planter was silent.

Tong Guan's political methods are extremely old-fashioned, and he knows how to take advantage of the opportunity to expand the results of the war.

Taking advantage of the slump of the opponent's Seed Master Dao, Tong Guan immediately changed the previous deployment of the Seed Master Dao and announced:

The army is divided into two roads, one is the East Road Army, that is, the Xiongzhou garrison, the goal is to enter the Baigou River area, by the division of the road is responsible, Wang Yu will be the front army, Yang Wei Lieutenant General left army, Lieutenant General of the right army, Wang Ping will be the rear army, Zhao Ming will choose the front army.

The other road is the West Route Army, that is, the garrison of the Guangxin Army, the goal is to enter the area of Fancun, with Xin Xingzong in charge, Yang Keshi and Wang Yuan will be in charge of the front army, Yao Pingzhong and Jiao Anjie will be the left army, Liu Guangguo and Ji Jing will be the right army, Cookie and Wang Yu will be in the rear army, Wu Zihou and Liu Guangshi will choose the front army, and listen to Liu Yanqing's moderation.

Judging from Tong Guan's deployment, the Du Commander has been reduced to the same status as Liu Yanqing or even Xin Xingzong, and Tong Guan completely disrupted the Western Army, so that the Western Army could no longer become a complete piece and could not be held together.

In short, Tong Guan took advantage of Zhao Ji's three strategies to patrol the border and get all the military power at once.

And the seed master who understood his true identity completely lost his previous struggle, and then he followed Tong Guan's convenience, he thought: "Since I don't fight, since I'm just an ornament, what else to fight for, I'd better be a little more interesting." ”

……

At the beginning of March, Wanyan Yinshu was recommended by Wanyan Xianye, and he served as an envoy to the Great Song Dynasty.

But at that time, Wanyan Yinshu could be in Yangchengluo, and Wanyan Agu was in Liaozhongjing, and it took at least ten days to travel between the two places.

And Wanyan Yinshu must be persuaded to fight with Yan Agu before he can send the Great Song Dynasty.

It is also not a coincidence, after Wanyan Yinshu went to Liaozhong Beijing, Wanyan Aguda went to Xianzhou again.

There is no way, Wanyan Yinshu can chase Xianzhou again.

In Xianzhou, Wanyan Yinshu finally saw Wanyan Aguta.

Wanyan Yinshu can immediately report the details of Yelu Yanxi's capture by Cai and Wanyan Zonghan's defeat by Cai still to Wanyan Aguta, and told Wanyan Aguda that he wants to send an envoy to the Great Song Dynasty, wants to probe the tone of the Great Song Dynasty, wants to see if the Great Song is ready to break the contract, and at the same time probe the reality of the Great Song Dynasty, it is best to get some weapons of the Jinwu Army to bring back for study.

Wanyan Aguda was also shocked by what Wanyan Yinshu said, he discussed it with his staff, and felt that he should send someone to the Great Song Dynasty to take a look.

As a result, Wanyan Aguda ordered Wanyan Yinshu to be an envoy and Xiao Jin to be a deputy envoy to the Great Song Dynasty with an oath to hold an oath to account.

At this time, it was already the beginning of April, and a month had passed since Cai still caught Yelu Yanxi.

And yet—

Even God seems to be busy.

Because the ships of the Kingdom of Jin can't work.

Coincidentally, as soon as they came out, they encountered a strong wind and waves.

As a result, three of the five ships sent by the Jin Kingdom were overturned by the wind and waves, and only the boat that Wanyan Yinshuke was riding and the other boat escaped by chance.

The storm lasted for more than a month.

After the storm passed, Wanyan Yinshuke, who was worried about the previous incident, took several days to find a large ship of Goryeo, and then continued to envoy to the Great Song Dynasty.

But—

At this time, it was already mid-May, and the situation in Yanyun had changed greatly......

……