In September, the nights were already extremely cold.

The north wind howled, and there was a dead silence in the fence that encircled the monarchs and ministers of the Southern Dynasty.

After dark, everyone tried not to go out, and lay on the thatched beds to suffer from hunger for a long night.

In situations where food is scarce, avoid consuming calories. This is the lesson learned after many people died of cold and starvation last year.

The Khitans don't care about the lives or deaths of these people, except for checking the heads every few days, that is, dragging the dead bodies out to boil oil.

In the crumbling hut, Zhao Ke stared at the faint flames, his eyes full of doubt, resentment and fear.

The firelight reflected his changing face, sometimes hideous and terrifying, sometimes muttering to himself, sometimes his forehead was full of bruises, sometimes full of worry. But he just cowered timidly in a corner of the house. Zhao Ke was once rich in the world and was one of the most powerful emperors in the world. However, when he lost the armor of power, the soul that was protected by the armor was weaker than that of ordinary people. Even if the former subordinates gradually lost their respect for him, and walked in front of him with an indifferent expression, even after Zhao Zhifu and others were beheaded, the captured Song Chen completely lost hope and cast a resentful look at the emperor, Zhao Ke did not have the courage to reprimand even a word. Like a crab hiding in a conch shell, losing the armor of power, the most tyrannical emperor immediately becomes the weakest and most cowardly man in the world.

The north wind howled outside the hut, and the former emperor could not muster any courage to ask the Khitans for the missing queen.

"This slut is smelting and prostitution, seducing men, and something really happened! What a slut! I should have done away with her a long time ago! ”

Zhao Ke's face was gloomy, and he suddenly scolded viciously, as if he could offset the anxiety and humiliation in his heart.

As early as the journey north, women continued to disappear from the captives. The Khitan people attached great importance to craftsmen, and after arriving in Beijing, the North Courtyard rewarded all the palace maids and some of the ministers' wives and daughters to the craftsmen as wives. Since then, not only the Khitans, but also these Han craftsmen who have gone north have stepped on the heads of the northern hunters. Zhao Ke once saw a blacksmith openly hugging the squire's wife. After arriving in Beijing, many of the ministers' wives and daughters suddenly disappeared, and even humiliated them in front of them, and the female dependents in the prisoner camp disappeared from time to time, some disappeared from time to time, and some appeared haggard after a few days. Zhu Ying has a dignified face, and some people have long coveted it, but because of her status as the queen of the Southern Dynasty, she is worried that if Yelu Dashi thinks of this woman, it will be difficult to explain it afterwards. Now that Zhu Ying is missing, Zhao Ke didn't expect her to elope and escape, but guessed that the Khitan magnates finally attacked Zhu Ying.

The lives of the captives of the Southern Dynasty were like ants to the Khitan officials, let alone women.

"Damn slut, slut! It's a big deal! Why didn't you die?! ”

Zhao Ke cursed indignantly, only in this way could he resist the humiliation and anger like ten thousand ants devouring his heart.

If Zhu Ying reappeared a few days later, like other ministers' wives and daughters, he didn't even know how to face this unruly woman.

Scrapped her? Death to her? Will that anger the Khitan officials?

He suddenly found himself deeply jealous, and even hoped that she would die to preserve her chastity.

Zhao Ke used to be known for not being close to women, however, he was not a monk who was disciplined by the rules and regulations after all. This woman has been looking for reasons to shirk his favor, which was unforgivable and unacceptable in the past, but now Zhao Ke can't use force against her, and the other palace maids and concubines have been snatched away by the Khitans, so he hasn't touched a woman for nearly half a year. Now, at the thought of her being forced to toss and turn under other men, jealousy consumed his heart like a flame.

"Isn't it the daughter of the Jiangmen? She should be as loyal to me as her father and brother, right? ”

Zhao Ke suddenly thought to himself, he had secretly looked forward to the death of his father Zhao You in the past, and a faint feeling of guilt disappeared in an instant.

The night was long, and jealousy and pain tormented Zhao Ke's heart repeatedly, but he didn't do anything after all.

Three days later, when the captives were counted, the Khitan guards found that the Empress of Song was missing.

After passing Zhao Ke, the Khitan officials assigned people to look for them, and only found a few lost clothes by the stream.

In the afternoon, the news was reported to the North Courtyard, and Yelu Tiege didn't pay much attention to it. Since Zhao Zhifu, Qin Hui and others who tested the attitude of the Southern Dynasty were beheaded, the captured Song Dynasty monarchs and ministers have become chicken-like existences, and their status in the North Courtyard is not as good as cattle and horses, cattle and horses are at least useful, what is the use of these people? Yelu Tiege felt that if he simply killed all these people, the emperor of the Southern Dynasty might be secretly pleased. The reason why these people's lives are kept is just to disgust the Southern Dynasty and not do anything to make the other party happy.

Yelu Tiege casually ordered the guards to go back and intensify the search, and then turned his energy to dealing with the coming battle.

The Song State prepared for the Northern Expedition with great fanfare, and even sold Hebei coupons and Youzhou coupons in Yangzhou, which simply provoked the majesty of the Great Liao State. Although the defeat in Henan produced pessimism among some Khitan generals, the vast majority of Khitans still looked down on the Southern Dynasties, especially those who had not been on the battlefield. They instinctively believed what they saw, how could those Southern Dynasty Han children who were working in groups under leather whips defeat the Khitan warriors? "If it weren't for the treacherous Xia people stabbing him in the back." This is the most talked about during the deliberations of the Eight Ministries, implying a ridicule of Yelu Tiege. Blatantly mocking Yelu Dashi, no one dares to do it, even if the Khitan nobles complain, they only dare to secretly rush at the privy envoy of the Northern Court. Some people even secretly promoted material discussions, and even affected the opinion of the tribal warriors on Yelu Tiege. In order to maintain the prestige of the emperor, the privy envoy of the Northern Court did not defend himself, which further contributed to the slander of him. Fortunately, Yelu Dashi still trusts him very much, and the heavy responsibility of dealing with the Northern Expedition of the Song Army this time still falls on Yelu Tiege.

Yelu Tiege is the most trusted subordinate of the greatest stone, and he may even break the tradition of father and son established by Yelu Abaoji and be directly elected as the leader of the new emperor by the assembly of the eight ministries. He participated in almost all the battles between the Liao and Song dynasties, and knew the advantages and disadvantages of both armies on both sides. Therefore, unlike most of the Khitan nobles, Yelu Tiege tried his best to consolidate Hebei when most of them advocated a counterattack on Henan, and persuaded Yelu Dashi to send envoys to both Xia and Song to try to conclude a peace treaty.

When the news came that the Song State was preparing for a large-scale northern expedition, the Khitan nobles who had just obtained the land of Hebei were in an uproar.

When the Eight Divisions General Assembly decided to attack the Song army head-on, Yelu Tiege advocated shrinking the troops as much as possible and lengthening the supply line of the Song army. Although Yelu Dashi did not express his position publicly, he actually supported Yelu Tiege's plan with silence. The Song State won several great victories in Henan, which fully proved that they could defeat the Liao army in the plains. However, for every mile the Liao army retreated to the north, the burden of the Song army increased by one point. The longer the war dragged on, the more likely it was that the chaotic court of the Song Kingdom would cause trouble ahead. In the past hundred years of the Liao and Song dynasties, this has been the case.

No matter how much land was given up at the beginning, as long as the main force of the Song army was defeated and tens of thousands of Song troops were killed, the Song army could be forced to submit.

If the cavalry could turn the rout of hundreds of thousands of Song troops into a massacre, perhaps they could force the entire Song state to submit.

With war to force peace, Yelu Tiege has always been this proposition. This war defeated the arrogance of the monarchs and ministers of the Song State, and signed a dignified covenant with the discerning people in the Song Dynasty before the intervention of the Xia State. When most of the Khitan nobles were attracted by the Northern Expedition of the Song Kingdom, the most important factor he considered was the Xia Kingdom, which had not yet made a move. Compared with the weak and chaotic Song Kingdom, the Xia Kingdom, who has been sitting on the mountain and watching the tiger fight, is the real beast. For this reason, he did not hesitate to strengthen the political enemy of the court, Empress Xiao's beloved son-in-law, the concubine Xiao Tachi, not only acquiesced in the Entrenched Erbo tribe in Xijing Province to recruit Han craftsmen to establish an artillery team, but also transferred 5,000 pairs of iron armor, 15,000 pairs of leather armor, 20,000 catties of gunpowder, and 300,000 stone of grain to the Murbo Department under the condition of various military supplies. At his suggestion, Yelu Dashi also summoned Xiao Tachi many times, not only asking him to restrain the Murbo people from taking the initiative to provoke the Xia State, but also expressing that if the Xia army invaded the west, the Liao State would definitely support the Murbo tribe to fight to the end.

Before the Liao army withdrew from Henan, it left behind countless details, and the Song army's preparations for the Northern Expedition were almost open.

Under the joint guarantee of Yue Fei and Cao Liangshi, Lu Mingyu, who had been instructed by Zhao Xingde, led 25,000 elite soldiers to join the Northern Expedition and was listed as the right wing of the army, while Deng Yuanjue and Luo Xianshi led their troops to stay in the three towns of Jingdong in case of contingencies. The fire battalions, cavalry, and baggage soldiers gathered south of the Yellow River, and the Liao cavalry could even see the towering haystacks, which were prepared for the cattle of the army. In a large area on the north bank of the Yellow River, the Liao army, after transporting the last batch of hay, preferred to burn all the remaining autumn grass in one go. The Khitan magnates and the Liao cavalry carried out the last round of looting of the Han people in Hebei, and then drove these two-legged cattle to retreat northward, and the Liao army did not give up a large area of Hebei in one go, but pressed the Song army's advance momentum with cavalry.

On the vast battlefield, the clouds are thick, and a violent storm is being brewed, and from time to time small lightning bursts out, so that no one can ignore the battle clouds piled up over the battlefield. The armies of the two sides have not yet met, but the battle has already begun, and on the north bank of the Yellow River, countless battles are going on every day. The Liao army retreated, and when retreating, it continued to burn cities and villages, leaving a scorched earth for the Song army, and the head of the Song army's avant-garde battalion continued to search for the Liao cavalry, and the cavalry continued to intercept the Liao army squads that fell behind. The war was fought in the most brutal way from the beginning, and the number of dead on both sides of the Liao and Song dynasties was almost equal to the number of wounded, and the captured were certainly a dead end, and there were almost no prisoners who surrendered voluntarily.