After Liu Tao and Liu Ziyu arrived in Yuncheng, they learned that Cai was personally leading the army to recover Ruzhou and Fuzhou, and he could not see Cai Yi in a short time.

There was no way, Liu Tao could only live in Cloud City temporarily.

Liu Tao is a person who can't be idle, so after living in Yuncheng, Liu Tao always goes out to look around, and by the way, he explores the reality of Cai Yi's small force.

Soon, Liu Tao discovered that Cai was still full of vitality here, and it was extremely advanced - not only with advanced tools, but also with advanced policies.

The more he understands Cai Yi's small force, the more frightened Liu Tao becomes, and the more worried he is about Zhao Song, who is not as good as here.

Liu Tao began to record what he saw and heard, and he wanted to find an opportunity to send these back to Zhao Song, so that the people of Zhao Song could wake up and learn from each other's strengths.

In addition, Liu Tao is also looking forward to seeing Cai Yi as soon as possible, and then solving Cai Ying's huge threat for Zhao Song.

Not only did Liu Tao fail to meet Cai Ying, but Cai Qian also failed to meet Cai Ying.

When Cai Qian arrived in Cloud City, Cai still happened to lead his troops east.

Originally, Cai Qian wanted to go to the front line to find Cai Ying.

But Li Gang sent someone to the front line to ask what Cai still meant.

Cai still said that the front line is dangerous, and he will meet Cai Qian again when he comes back.

(At that time, Cai still didn't expect that this battle would last so long.) ）

Helpless, Cai Qian could only live in Cloud City......

It was not until mid-August that Cai still recovered the two prefectures of Confucianism and Confucianism, appointed Qiu Yi and Guo Yong as the governors of the two prefectures respectively, and relocated 100,000 people from the rest of the prefectures to these two prefectures with preferential policies.

Because of the long interval, and because he had a certain understanding of Cai Ying's small force, Cai Qian didn't know what to say to Cai Zhen for a while.

The two brothers looked at each other for a long time, and Cai Qian asked bluntly: "Do you have to be opposed?" ”

Cai still asked Cai Qian to sit down and said, "I don't want to rebel, but I don't want to watch His Majesty lead the Han people into the endless abyss." ”

Cai Qian frowned and said, "What do you mean by this?" ”

Cai was still silent for a while, and said: "The Great Song Dynasty is already full of holes, but Your Majesty is still extremely poor and extravagant, and the army is reckless, I dare to assert that the Great Song Dynasty is about to usher in a huge crisis, this huge crisis will bring a catastrophe to the Han people under His Majesty's rule, I don't want to watch these Han people live in dire straits, so I want to guard the northern gateway for the Han people, and I don't want them to resist this catastrophe at the same time, but also suffer from the invasion of the Hu people." ”

Cai Qian was very dissatisfied with Cai Ying's reply.

Cai Qian is not unaware of the chaos that has occurred in some areas of the Great Song Dynasty, such as the southeast, Jingdong, and Jingxi.

But in Cai Sui's view, this is just a labor pain, as long as the Great Song Dynasty's recovery of Yanyun comes to an end, and troops are sent to slowly quell these rebellions, it's okay, where does it need to be described as "catastrophe"?

Cai Qian thought again: "He said that it shouldn't be the defeat of Baigou, right?" ”

However, Cai Qian immediately denied it: "Victory and defeat are a common thing in soldiers, and a defeat can determine the fate of a country?" ”

"Moreover, Cai still has the heart of self-reliance first, and the defeat of Baigou happened later, so it shouldn't be this."

"What's that?"

After thinking about it for a while, except that Cai was still ambitious, Cai Qian couldn't think of a second reason at all.

Cai Qian asked Cai Ying: "What are you going to do?" ”

Cai was still silent for a while, and said, "I want to follow the example of the Zhi family, the Yang family, and the Wang family to guard Yanyun for the Great Song Dynasty." ”

Cai Qian, it can also be said that Zhao Jijunchen, whom he represents, did not expect to put Yundi in the military and horse division of the road, which is under the jurisdiction of Hedong Road, and implements the provincial and provincial Zhengzhou ruling system and mechanism with a strong feudal town division and tribal color, and hands over the military power to Cai is still in charge.

But Zhao Ji Junchen didn't expect that Cai Ying's appetite would be so big, not only for Yundi, but also for Yandi.

This is what Zhao Ji Junchen can never accept - not to mention, Zhao Ji Junchen has been planning to recover Yanjing for a long time, and he will not be willing to give up Yanjing like this, especially to give Yanjing to Cai Ying, only saying that if Cai still takes Yanyun, then Cai still has the strength to compete with Zhao Song, in that case, for Zhao Song, the threat is too great, to paraphrase Song Taizu Zhao Kuangyin's words, how can others be allowed to snore on the side of the couch?

And Cai is still bound to gain Yan land - without Yan land, Cai still can't stop the Hu people from going south, without Yan land, Cai still can't develop and grow, without Yan land, Cai still can't get in touch with his base Taiwan, without Yan land, Cai still has to be trapped in Yundi and slowly trapped to death, without Yan land, Cai still can't stop Jingkang's shame, so, no matter what, Cai still has to recover Yan land.

The two sides could not reach an agreement on the ownership of Yandi at all.

Therefore, the two sides cannot reach an agreement at all.

There was no way, Cai Qian could only return to Tokyo Bianliang City first with Cai Ying's intentions.

Let's talk about Liu Tao again.

Although Liu Tao hid it well, Liu Ziyu, who was as careful as a hair, still vaguely guessed the purpose of Liu Tao's visit.

Liu Ziyu struggled for a long time, and finally chose to tell Cai Yi his guess and begged Cai still to spare his father's life.

After Cai still agreed, he suddenly felt that this was an opportunity.

A few days later, Cai still deliberately met with Liu Tao while inspecting the army.

On the pretext of giving gifts to Cai Ying, Liu Tao brought all the dead soldiers he brought.

Because he was in the barracks, Cai still only had Liu Ziyu and two personal guards by his side, and the others were thousands of meters away from Cai Ying.

This opportunity is so great.

Moreover, through the understanding of Cai Yi's small force for more than a month, Liu Tao felt more and more that Cai was still a huge threat to the Great Song Dynasty, and if he didn't get rid of it, those who died in the Song Dynasty would still be Cai!

Therefore, Liu Tao launched an attack on Cai still very decisively......

……

A few days later, the news that "Liu Yi failed to kill Cai Yi, but only left Cai still seriously injured and poisoned" spread across Yanshan to Yanjing and Hebei.

Let's not mention the schadenfreude of Xiao Puxian's daughter, just say that Tong Guan and Cai You heard that Liu Yun won Cai is still dying, they are both happy and a little regretful!

What they are happy about is that Liu Yi has really made a contribution, and it is possible to solve Cai Yi's huge trouble.

They regretted that Liu Tao did not kill Cai Yi immediately, leaving a trace of uncertainty for this matter.

Cai You didn't feel sad for Cai still at all, he took the initiative to find Tong Guan and said: "Cai is still in vain for the kindness of the official family to him, his brain is long and boneless, and it is not a pity to die, but his generals are not at fault, we can send people to surrender to Cai Ying's generals, as long as they bring the army to vote, we will give them a reward, in this way, it not only disintegrates Cai Ying's army, but also strengthens our Great Song Dynasty, killing two birds with one stone." ”

Although Tong Guan was a little disdainful that Cai You sold his own brother so decisively, in the final analysis, this was only their Cai family's own business, and it had nothing to do with him Tong Guan.

Putting aside Cai You's character, it's still good to just say that Cai You's plan is still good.

Tong Guan felt that Cai was still dying now, and there should be many people who were willing to abandon Cai still and return to their embrace of the Great Song Dynasty.

Thinking of this, Tong Guan immediately took action and tried every means to send people to Yundi to recruit the generals under Cai Ying......

……

Just when Tong Guan and Cai Yu were digging into Cai Ying's corner, Liu Yanqing led his problem army to Xiongzhou with great difficulty.

Here, Liu Yanqing met with Tong Guan and Cai You.

Tong Guan is Liu Yanqing's old superior, so he didn't be polite to Liu Yanqing, and directly introduced the enemy situation to Liu Yanqing, he said: "At present, the main force of the Khitan still exists, and the combat effectiveness is still very strong, so it is not easy to fight with it. ”

Liu Yanqing was also very uncertain about fighting with the Liao army, especially after he came all the way with this problem army, he said: "The Khitan is not Fangla, the Khitan is a Jin Ge iron horse, it is not easy to deal with, in my opinion, it is better to wait for the Jurchens to arrive, and then we will fight in the north and south, and go down to Yanjing in a battle." ”

In fact, like Liu Yanqing, Tong Guan also wanted to attack Yanjing with the Jin army, so as to ensure that Yanjing would be defeated in a war - after all, Tong Guan had brought more than 20 years of soldiers, and he knew better than anyone else that he had four or five hundred thousand troops on their side, but in fact, only the tens of thousands of Western troops could be beaten, and the other armies were completely decorations, no, it should be said that it was a burden.

But—

Tong Guan couldn't say this clearly, because he didn't want to take this responsibility.

Cai You briefly explained to Liu Yanqing the situation of the army's stationing: "Now that the army has basically been assembled, the troops are divided into two routes, one is stationed in the ancient city, and the other is stationed in the Guangxin army, Uncle Ping (Liu Guangshi) has already gone to the Guangxin army, and General Liu will go to the ancient city." ”

The person who succeeded Liu Ju as Tong Guan's marching senator was Yu Wenxuzhong, that is, the first intelligence officer in history who endured humiliation and death to Mingzhi.

After receiving the appointment, Yuwen Xuzhong immediately set off and inspected the armament situation of the prefectures and counties along the way.

After arriving at the Xuanfu Division in Xiongzhou, Yuwen Xuzhong went to the Guangxin Army and the ancient city respectively to actually inspect the state of the army.

After returning to the Xuanfu Division, Yuwen Xuzhong said to Tong Guan: "The armament situation is not optimistic, and there are serious problems in material reserves, siege equipment, morale in the army, etc. ”

Actually-

Tong Guan already knew about these situations, and they all reported them to Zhao Ji - there has been no war in Hebei for nearly a hundred years, and the long-term years of peace, as well as corruption from top to bottom, have made the combat effectiveness of the Hebei army so low that it has not been offline.

This is also the main reason why Tong Guan hopes and the Jin army are sandwiched between the north and south to attack Yanjing.

Tong Guan said to Yuwen Xuzhong: "Do your best, listen to the destiny of heaven." ”

Yu Wenxuzhong felt that since he was the marching staff officer, he had to seek his own government in his position and fulfill his duties.

So, Yu Wenxu wrote a piece of "On the Interests of Recovering Yanshan" overnight:

Today, according to the wise calculation, if you want to recover Yanshan or make the land, you will be a soldier, if you take the years, you can also cause it, but you are born to destroy it, you can not destroy it, you know your own self, and you should try to complete the strategy......

In short, the meaning of Yuwen Xuzhong is actually that for the sake of the country, it is necessary to seek permanent comfort, and getting along with the Khitan is the best policy once and for all.

Wang Hao was furious after reading the recital in Yuwen Xuzhong!

Wang Hao believes that Yuwen Xuzhong is a scholar, who does not understand politics or military affairs, and only knows how to talk about soldiers on paper, and he began to shake the morale of the army as soon as he went to Hebei, how can such a person be a marching staff officer?

Wang Hao planned to impeach Yuwen Xuzhong to Zhao Ji and punish Yuwen Xuzhong heavily.

However, Wang Hao then received a letter from Tong Guan - Tong Guan interceded for Yu Wenxu in the letter.

For the sake of Tong Guan's face, Wang Hao withheld the chapter of Yuwen Xuzhong and did not report it to Zhao Ji, but only demoted Yuwen Xuzhong to the Jiying Palace, and let him continue to stay in the Xuanfu Division as a marching staff officer.

Yuwen Xuzhong did not retreat because of the demotion, he continued to write some pieces of analysis of the Northern Expedition, and successively "established eleven strategies and twelve discussions".

However, these movements were all suppressed by Tong Guan and were not reported.

Tong Guan did this, in fact, to protect Yuwen Xuzhong.

Tong Guan likes Yuwen Xuzhong very much (in the following years, Yuwen Xuzhong has been following Tong Guan and serving as a staff officer until the year when Tong Guan fled back to Beijing from Taiyuan in embarrassment), so he has been protecting Yuwen Xuzhong, otherwise Yuwen Xuzhong would have followed in the footsteps of Song Zhao and was exiled by Zhao Ji and Wang Hao, who were bent on recovering Yanjing.

On this day, Liu Yanqing, the commander of the Northern Expeditionary Army, left the ancient city and went north to Baigou River to observe the enemy's situation.

I saw that the Liao country on the other side of the river was very quiet, and only occasionally I could see the Liao army sentries walking back and forth.

Liu Yanqing preliminarily judged that the main force of the Liao army had retreated, and he planned to send troops across the river to test it.

At dawn the next day, Liu Yanqing sent Zheng Jianxiong, Li Shao and other generals to take advantage of the thick fog on the river to cover the crossing of the river.

After Zheng Jianxiong, Li Shao and other generals crossed the river, they captured dozens of Liao soldiers stationed in the bridgehead in one fell swoop.

After interrogation, Liu Yanqing learned that since there was no police situation at the Baigou River boundary for several months, the main force of the Liao army had indeed retreated, leaving only a small part of the troops stationed in Xincheng.

Liu Yanqing was very happy about this, which proved that his judgment was correct.

Actually-

Xiao Gan and Yelu Dashi had already returned to Yanjing when Yeluchun was seriously ill.

Later, Yeluchun died, and Xiao Gan and Yelu Dashi were busy plotting and plotting to establish Xiaohou, so they didn't have time to come to Baigou.

At present, the one who undertakes the defensive task on the Song-Liao border line is Xiao Jilu, the deputy commander of the Southwest Road.

Due to the limited number of troops (less than 3,000 men), Xiao Jilu had not yet discovered the Song army in the area of the ancient city on the south bank of the Baigou River, he only knew that the Guangxin army had already been stationed in the Song army, so he was currently stationed in Xincheng - due to the lack of troops, he organized the local Xi and Khitan villagers to constantly harass the Song army in the area of the Guangxin army.

Liu Guangshi is only 34 years old this year, young and vigorous, and he is far from Liu Ranran, who will be smoothed out by the years in the future.

Seeing that the enemy was empty, Liu Guangshi decisively ordered the generals Ji Jing, Zhao Ming, Ren Ming and others to lead their troops out of the city to meet the battle, and the result was a complete victory, and it is said that tens of thousands of enemies were killed.

Tong Guan was very happy when he learned this, and immediately went to the court to ask for credit to Liu Guangshi.

Zhao Ji was overjoyed when he heard the news, and issued an edict to promote Liu Guangshi to be the envoy of the mighty army - the envoy was a military attaché, only one level lower than the envoy of the festival, and he already belonged to the sequence of senior military attachés.

It can be seen that Zhao Ji obviously regards Liu Guangshi as the second Cai Yi.

Maybe Tong Guan was a little uneasy, so he handed over the army to Liu Yanqing and Liu Guangshi's father and son to command.

Soon, Tong Guan transferred Yang Keshi, the Huazhou observation envoy, to the Xuanfu Division to listen to the envoy.

A few days later, Tong Guan arranged for Yang Keshi to garrison the Ansu army.

At this time, the Han people in Yandi generally believed that the Liao State was about to fall, and Cai or the Jurchens would soon come over, so they all had the intention of returning south to the Song Dynasty.

In the battle of Baigou River, although the Song army was defeated, Yang Keshi's bravery was still remembered by the Han people in Yandi.

Therefore, when I heard that Yang Keshi was back, the people of Yandi, who had no way out, defected to the Ansu army one after another.

This caused Liu Guangshi's jealousy and dissatisfaction.

In fact, this is only one of the reasons, and more importantly, Yang Keshi is here to divide the military power of their father and son.

But Liu Guangshi also knew that Yang Keshi was Tong Guan's descendant, so although he was dissatisfied, he was also a little helpless.

But—

The seeds of resentment have been planted, and resentment will sprout sooner or later......

……