The road leading from Jinyang to Hebei is the nearest is through Yangshou, through Pingding (Yangquan), Chengtian Junzhai (Niangzi Pass), and then through the Jingcheng Pass, which basically coincides with the railway line of later generations. Jingcheng is one of the eight Taihang Mountains, and now the Chengtian Military Village is in the hands of the Jinyang Army, while the Jingcheng Pass is controlled by the Chengde Army in Zhenzhou.

However, in the Tongguang period, the Chengde Army Jiedu envoy Fu Xi moved to Qingzhou Jiedu Envoy and took away most of the Zhenzhou Army, and then Zhuangzong Li Cunqiao intended to weaken the Chengde Military Town, and the garrison was not restored when Ren Yuan stayed and Guo Chongtao served as the Chengde Army Jiedu Envoy, and the strength was limited.

The army marched in the Taihang Mountain, the dust was flying, and the vegetation on the Taihang Mountain was more lush than in later generations, and the mountain was also full of green. It's just that the mountains are sparsely wooded, and there are no particularly large forests. The road leading to the Chengtian military village has just been renovated, and after being re-compacted with lime-mixed loess, the vehicles carrying baggage, ordnance, grain and grass walking on it are no longer as bumpy as they used to be.

When the army arrived in Yangshou, the leader of the Yunzhou Turkic Department, Zhang Mujin, the assassin of Huanzhou, and the assassin Shi Zhen of Fuzhou had already led 2,500 cavalry troops to rush over, and then joined forces with the Jinyang army, went out of the Chengtian army village, and went to Zhenzhou along Jingcheng.

Since the camp tents were all on the baggage vehicles of the rear army, and the more than 10,000 cavalry troops plus 5,000 auxiliary troops transporting the baggage, the speed of the army's movement was only more than 40 miles a day, which made Li Qi feel unbearable. Unless it was a short-distance battle with dry rations for a few days, it was not possible to speed up the march, and the speed of movement of the large army was actually restricted by the baggage convoys.

The Jinyang army of more than 25,000 people led by Li Qi actually only had more than 10,000 infantry troops that could really be used in battle, and the real cavalry army was only 8,000 cavalry led by Yuan Ren, Zhang Mujin and Zhi Congyuan, and the rest were baggage troops.

The biggest feature of the Jinyang Army and the Shanbei Army is that they are well equipped. First of all, the black woolen cloth clothing was neat and thick, that is, warm and comfortable, and the ordinary soldiers wore light cotton armor with chain mail and helmets and other protective gear, each of them was equipped with a narrow waist knife, the other two-thirds of the foot soldiers were equipped with steel swords, and only a quarter of the personnel were equipped with spears as long weapons. The equipment of the cavalry is basically a riding bow and waist knife, and the long weapon is also a cavalry spear, and the overall equipment level has even far exceeded that of the southern army, which is also the reason why Yuan Xingqin and other generals are very confident.

The army should display its flags and clean up the army, but the army marching along the Fen River valley looks very messy. From time to time, scouts and heralds who delivered messages back and forth galloped past the flanks of the procession, reporting to Li Qi on various situations. The army went all the way to the east, and after passing Yangshou, the sides of the official road gradually became steep. It was the dry summer season, and the army was dusty, and by the time the evening rested, everyone would become a native.

A week later, the army was stationed outside the Chengtian army. Passing through the low city gate and entering the dilapidated Chengtian Military City, Li Qi couldn't help but sigh that his grandfather's two generations of governance were nothing more than this, entrenched in Hedong Jin for decades, and did not make much contribution to the development of Jin Land.

The Jinyang army went out of the Chengtian military city, just arrived at the Jingcheng Pass, ready to attack the city, and saw that the gate was wide open, and the defenders actually led the pass to surrender. It turned out that Han Xu, the general of Jingcheng Pass, was originally from the Yangshou clan, and he was originally from the Jin Army, but now after seeing the banner of the Jinyang Army, he automatically surrendered to Cheng.

After Han Xu, the guard of Jingcheng Pass, welcomed Li Qi and others into the city, and briefly told Li Qi about the battle situation in Dingzhou.

Now that the southern army has besieged Dingzhou, Wang Du was afraid that Li Qi would not come, and sent people to Bei'an Prefecture (Chengde) to ask for help from the leader of the Xi tribe, and promised many benefits. King Xi saw that it was profitable, so he led Xi's army to come to the aid and broke into Dingzhou.

Wang Yanqiu saw that the soldiers were vigorous, so he avoided its edge first, so he retreated to Quyang first.

When the king of the Xi tribe saw that the southern army was retreating, he was complacent and joined forces with the king to attack Quyang.

Unexpectedly, near Quyang, he was ambushed by Wang Yanqiu. Wang Du and Xi Jun were defeated, Wang Yanqiu took advantage of the victory to pursue, surrounded Dingzhou City, Wang Du and Bald Yu trapped Dingzhou City, for the time being, it was helpless, Wang Yanqiu waved his troops to attack, so that the head of Dingzhou City was almost broken several times. Wang De had no choice but to sit at the head of the city and command the rescue in order to keep the city intact. At this time, it was already a stumbling situation, and it was very critical, so I had to ask for help from the Khitan lord Yelu Deguang.

Li Qi was not happy after hearing this, so he said angrily: "Since he went to find the Khitans, why did he ask me for help?" Go straight to Yerod Light to save him! ”

Han Shu said: "Your Majesty, don't be angry, then the king has no choice, under this life and death, he is sick and rushed to the doctor." Besides, the Khitans only wanted some wealth, but they had no idea about the territory. ”

Li Qi was even more annoyed when he heard this, and said: "It is this kind of bastard idea that this old nest will be occupied by people sooner or later!" The heart of the Khitan tiger and wolf, but you are doing the thing that lured the wolf into the house! He picked up the tea bowl and drank a few sips of tea before suppressing the anger in his heart, and for the time being, he didn't bother with Wang De, and began to discuss the plan for the next move with Yuan Xingqin, Fu Yanqing, Han Xu, etc.

Yuan Xingqin and Han Shu were very direct and advocated directly saving Dingzhou.

"Doesn't there need to be a strategy?" Listening to their words, Li Qi asked.

"This is out of the Jingcheng Pass, everywhere is a horse and a flat river, where there is any strategy, it is to fight hard, at most to contact the city, and implement an internal and external attack." Yuan Xingqin said.

Hearing what he said, Li Qi found that he was basically blind after reading so many books, how could there be any tricks in this battle, the Jin army's combat methods were very simple and rude, the two armies looked at each other, lined up, and then ...... Get started!

If you win, you won, and if you can't, you will run away......

Li Qi said: "I have some thoughts about Youzhou, Zhao Dejun, the envoy of Youzhou Jiedu, is Liu Shouguang's old general, and he relies on nothing more than a pro-army composed of three thousand Khitan troops. ”

Yuan Xingqin said: "The minister and that Zhao Dejun are old acquaintances, and they are willing to go in person." ”

Li Qi shook his head: "You are a general of the Chinese army, how can you easily risk your life, you only need to send a subordinate who can speak well and knows him, and he can go to Youzhou to persuade with my edict." ”

Yuan Xingqin said: "Then you can send the third brother Yuan Xingkai to go." ”

Han Shu heard Li Qi arrange this, and couldn't help asking, "Doesn't the Son of Heaven want to save Dingzhou?" ”

Li Qi glanced at him and replied: "This is the strategy of encircling Wei to save Zhao, as long as Youzhou changes hands, the siege of Dingzhou will be solved." Dingzhou is an important town in the north, the city is high and strong, so Wang Yanqiu can't help the defenders in the city for the time being, so there is no need to worry. ”

Yuan Xingqin also said: "Your Majesty's plan is the overall situation, it is really the best policy, General Han should look farther, and he will experience the wonderful taste." ”

So Li Qi ordered Lu Yan, the counselor of the army, to draft an edict, and sent Yuan Xingkai as an envoy to Youzhou to persuade Lu Long to make Zhao Dejun anyway and return to Jinyang.