"Digging the river?" The muscles on Wang Yan's face moved slightly, "I'm afraid that not only will it flood the Liao army outside the city, but it will also make Hejian Zuo Zuo become a Ze country." "Although Hebei is the place of four wars, but since the founding of this dynasty, the people who multiply are also in the millions, every spring and summer, the government will organize the people to strengthen the river embankment, in order to prevent flooding, this year because of the entrance of the Liao soldiers, no one is on duty on the river embankment in the spring.

"In the eyes of adults, if you don't use water as a soldier, how can you retreat from the enemy?" He Xuan smiled but didn't smile, gently lifted the teacup, took a sip, and frowned slightly imperceptibly.

"Our Hejian armies are willing to exhaust the Liao army with a strong city, and when the imperial army waives its army to the north, the three roads will attack the Liao army, and they can win the game." Wang Yan groaned. The national policy of the Great Song Dynasty has always been to make the border towns more than enough to code, and the offensive is insufficient. Yang Yanqing came up and planned to counterattack the Liao army, but he was a little impatient.

He Xuan had such an expression, and said with a faint smile: "Lord Wang, do you know that there are more than 100,000 Liao troops who have entered the Kou, why are only tens of thousands under Hejian City, and the rest are nowhere to be seen?" ”

Wang Yan's heart sank slightly, and he continued: "Why? ”

"These Liao troops are now all over the countryside of Hebei, and even captured the county seats, plundered the population, and the strong men, women, and even young sons were forcibly taken to the Northern Dynasty and sold as slaves. If our army's movements are slower for another month, we are only afraid of the people of Hebei, and there will be no one out of ten. He Xuan said slowly, with a slightly sad expression on his face.

The imperial court has gathered more than 100,000 reinforcements in the Daimyo's Mansion, but the Hebei formation makes Lord Liu Yanqing seem to have some concerns, and he has been unable to advance, and has been watching the people of Hebei be taken away by the Liao. Tong Guan did not mention anything about this situation in the military report to the imperial court, and when the Khitan entered the Kou, they raided the grass valley and plundered the countryside, and all the princes of the court and the central government took it for granted, and they did not expect that this time the Liao people entered the Kou, almost swept away the savings and vitality of the people of Hebei.

"Why is China stronger than Siyi, and how can it win people? What is the use of the earth when man is gone? What is the basis of the country? Yang Yanqing went to the imperial court and asked the imperial army to quickly march north to expel the Liao, but was overwhelmed by the opinion of the DPRK and China that "the safety of Bianjing is the most important", Liu Yanqing was still waiting for more reinforcements to arrive at the Daimyo's Mansion, and was still coordinating the generals and integrating the armies, and was still waiting for the canal to mobilize heavy grain and grass, repeatedly emphasizing to the Privy Council that the three armies had not moved, and the importance of grain and grass first, and he was still fighting with Tong Guan in the middle of the compromise, and both sides vaguely mentioned the prince of the supervising army.

General Yang was even more worried that if the Liao army's raid of Hebei went too smoothly this time, he was afraid that it would stimulate the greed of the Hu people even more, and then he would continue to invade the border passes. Therefore, the plan to dig the river is also a last resort. He Xuan's face was slightly gloomy, and the Hedong Xingying Camp had done its best to dispatch 30,000 elites to the east quickly this time. In the past, the Liao people entered the Kou and raided the countryside in the grass valley, mostly because of obtaining military supplies. And this time the Liao soldiers acted intentionally to exhaust the people of the Great Song Dynasty.

After thinking about it again, Wang Yan still agreed to Yang Yanqing's plan. Because Zhao Xingde was a Confucian student of Taixue, he had a close relationship with the Qing Dynasty in the court, and until the end, he did not reveal the slightest rumor to Zhao Xingde.

When the day came for the reward and salary, the soldiers of the fire battalion unexpectedly received no deductions. Zhao Xingde didn't understand the rules of the army, and from the battalion commander to the head of the capital, he complained to the old officials in private, but Wang Yan only connived at him. He had given Zhao Xingde a lot of convenience to train the Fire Gun Camp earlier, but now he was a little worried that he would run the Fire Gun Camp too well, after all, no one was willing to let go of the power thing. In addition to being a strong soldier on the school ground, the commanders of each battalion in private have moved up and down, contacting the old commander, hoping to be transferred back to their original positions. Wang Yan also planned that when the war was over, Zhao Xingde would return to Bianjing, so he would divide the six firearm battalions into various armies to deal with the Liao heavy armor and infantry cavalry.

After the great victory, the Hejian army unexpectedly strengthened the foundation of the city wall, plugged the city gate and other possible loopholes, Zhao Xingde was quite surprised, until one day at dawn, the outside suddenly made a lot of noise, faintly there were people shouting "send a big water!" "The embankment has collapsed!"

Zhao Xingde got up in his clothes, looked out of the city, and saw that the outside of Hejian City had become a Zeguo. There are still pieces of ice floes floating in the icy and biting river, and the muddy water is full of debris of the Liao army camped, and from time to time you can see horses and soldiers struggling to save their lives in the flood, and the corpses float over from time to time, there are Liao soldiers, but more are thinly clothed people. Zhao Xingde silently watched the scene under the city, as if he had been hit hard by a hammer.

"In order to force the Liao soldiers to retreat, they had no choice but to dig the river embankment." Han Shizhong said in a low voice. As long as the river recedes, the remaining Liao cavalry will not be able to fight the Song army in the mud.

"Ridiculous!" Zhao Xingde's face was as cold as ice and snow, "How can the Lord of the Rulers be like this?" "But it works." Han Shizhong sighed and said in a deep voice, "For a general, there can't be a woman's kindness. ”

Zhao Xingde's face was pale, but he felt that there was no strong reason to persuade Han Shizhong, and he didn't argue with him, he only silently checked the water situation along the city, and whenever he saw the clothes of the people of the Song Kingdom floating in the water, his heart was gloomy. Liu Mazi looked at the turbid river with mourning, he didn't dare to imagine what happened to his wife who didn't flee into the city, even if she wasn't taken captive by the Liao, how would the women's family survive in this flood.

"God and Buddha bless, my family must not be flooded, Tian Qi, the house, it's gone!" Zhu Juren stared blankly at the tattered roof that occasionally drifted by. The thirteenth tenant king was a little numb, he was like a living dead, he had already lost everything, and the arrival of this flood only wiped the ground cleaner.

When passing through a city wall, seeing three or five people carrying sand and gravel crying relatively, Zhao Xingde walked over with his head down as if he was a sinner who had committed a heinous crime, not daring to stop. In the following days, Zhao Xingde didn't know why, deliberately avoided meeting with Wang Yan, he calmed down and sorted out the deeds of the soldiers who resisted the enemy since the defense of the city in Hejian, and wrote a new book of characters, printed it to teach the soldiers to read, and Wang Yan's command yamen also took out a sum of money to sponsor him.

After the river receded, the Liao soldiers were no longer able to besiege the city, so Wang Yan sent the general to lead the troops out of the city to patrol the enemy to invite the battle, and the armies took turns, but there was no opportunity for Zhao Xingde to go out of the city to lead the troops. Han Shizhong found that during this period of time, the command yamen frequently changed the officers above the command of the battalion, and most of the people who were replaced were the henchmen of the control adults who had the words "swear to defend the river" tattooed on their foreheads. After noticing, Han Shizhong went to Wang Yanyu alone three or four times to report the military situation, but he never tattooed words on his face, and since he was promoted from a soldier to an officer, he swore that he would never tattoo anything on his body again.

Yang Yanqing is really a famous general in the world, with only 30,000 reinforcements and the strategy of replacing soldiers with water, the Liao soldiers can no longer gain a foothold in Hebei. Xiao Dabu, the commander of the Liao army, who was not familiar with the water situation, also threw away the huge iron barrel cannon and other baggage in embarrassment, and the handsome elite cavalry retreated to the area of Gaoyang Pass on higher ground, and most of the Han military camp and the people who were forced to accompany the army were left behind. This battle turned the tide and recovered most of Hebei in one fell swoop, which made Yang Yanqing famous all over the world, forcing Liu Yanqing to march in advance, and offered to attack Gaoyang Pass with the two main forces of the Song army between the Zhending River, and even attack the territory of Liao. The previous battle of destroying five Liao army fortifications in Hejian is far from being compared, and some of the merits of Zhao Xingde's fire battalion are even more like fireflies than moonlight.

Soon after the Liao army retreated, Tong Guan, the commander of the Hebei camp, returned to the river, and his sea boat had been watching the progress of the battle, but this time when he returned, he found that the situation was different from the past. When Han Shizhong, Bi Sheng, and Feng Mei, the three generals of the original Zhenbei Army, met each other, they had a look of embarrassment on their faces, until Wang Yan coughed and said in a deep voice: "Why don't you come and see Lord Dubu." The three of them bowed as if they had been pardoned, but between their words, there was no longer the atmosphere of being willing to die for the deployment of the capital lords.

Tong Guan was self-defeating, his recommendation, Yang Yanqing's promotion, and the great victory in Hebei made the official Zhao You favor Wang Yan who adhered to the river, Zhao You hoped that Wang Yan would be in charge of a general who had nothing to do with the major generals, and Shen Yun did not let go of the opportunity to extend the power of the Imperial City Division to the army, and under the facilitation of several parties, His Majesty actually agreed that Wang Yan would continue to serve as the commander of the armies in Hejian, and it is said that the reward of the Son of Heaven Sword was also on the way.

The situation in Hebei has become the Hebei platoon to make Liu Yanqing garrison the daimyo, Yang Yanqing of the Hedong camp is stationed in Zhending, Wang Yan's department is stationed in the river, and the original Hebei camp is deployed Tong Guan, which is actually set up in the air, except for the more than 200 soldiers and horses of the first army of Zhenbei who accompanied him to the sea ship, there is no army directly under him. Tong Guan knew that the official family still did not forgive him for losing the defeat of the Hebei camp, and while asking Prime Minister Cai Jing for help, he continued to write military newspapers and submit them to the palace, trying to save the official family's mind.

The three-legged situation has continued in the summer, and the armies in the river are also the ups and downs, Zhao Xingde stayed out of the matter, but was the most carefree person, he will make the handwriting and the perception of the marching battle, and continue to communicate with the people in the science society with letters, but also enjoy themselves, the subordinate generals and soldiers, slowly get used to his character, knowing that he will soon leave the river, but a little attached and reluctant.

In June, the heat was unbearable, after the flood, the civil army was full of epidemics, on this day, Wang Yan summoned Zhao Xingde to control the yamen, and showed him the documents of the Privy Council.

"Yuanzhi Dacai, I wanted you to stay here to help me pass through Hebei, but the court needs you more like a pillar, it is said that the prince of the country is the priest of the wine Yang Shifu and the imperial history of the two Cheng Qin Hui, together to the emperor, transfer you back to Beijing." Wang Yan's face was cloudy, and he seemed to have some regret and a little guilt.