On the 14th day of December of the fifth year of Longdao, the snow stopped.

The meteorological staff officer sent by the former enemy staff stationed in Yaozhou reported that the temperature in the field had dropped to an astonishing minus forty degrees!

This means that the snow outside will not melt at all, and the river will be completely frozen – for a large number of sleds, many places that would otherwise be impassable have been turned into passable roads.

Here's your chance!

On the night of the 14th, Gaizhou.

The Sixth Bureau of the General Staff of the Qi Army has been stationed in Gaizhou for more than two months, and the busiest time has passed, and Zuo Helin, a temporary captain and staff officer temporarily assigned to the Sixth Bureau, is reading a book in his dormitory.

He didn't like to read books before, because the elders in the family only allowed him to read military books, and the teacher only let him read subsets of scriptures and histories, poems and songs, and other things.

The latter, Zuo Helin didn't even want to look at it.

He liked the former very much, but in Zuo Helin's opinion, most of the soldiers' writing was too general and not suitable for his current level.

Zuo Helin felt that what he should learn most now was something more specific.

Therefore, under Xu Shiyang's license, he purchased a complete set of current textbooks for the Qi State Military Academy, including:

"Compilation of Historical War Cases": This book mainly summarizes and analyzes various war examples in the history of this plane from the perspective of both sides of the war.

"Compilation of Modern War Cases": This book mainly analyzes the various battles experienced by the Qi army itself, because the Qi army has never lost, so the analysis focuses on the Qi army's summary of its own shortcomings, as well as the analysis of the reasons for defeat from the enemy's point of view.

"Military Mathematics": This book is the most troublesome thing for Zuo Helin, he thinks this thing is more like a book from heaven, but Xu Shiyang said that this textbook is very important.

In addition, there are "War and Logistics", "Infantry Regulations", "Artillery Regulations", "Cavalry Regulations", "Military Law", "Military Geography", "Military Sports", "Propaganda and Warfare Guidance", and so on. There are dozens of textbooks and books of all kinds, and Zuo Helin feels that most of them (except for the damn military mathematics) are very suitable for him to study hard now.

Therefore, since he entered the General Staff Department of the Qi Army for internship, whenever he has free time, he spends all his time reading textbooks, regardless of which textbooks are compulsory and which are elective, and he does not participate in various games in the staff officers' leisure time, such as chess ("invented" by Xu Shiyang) and rugby (wearing military armor).

This made him seem a little out of place, and as a result, he was the last to learn that his superiors had informed the lieutenant officers to immediately go to the large conference room for a meeting.

When Zuo Helin walked into the large conference room, all the lieutenant-level officers of the General Staff in Gaizhou had already arrived.

There were five serious colonel-level officers standing on the podium of the large conference room, and under the podium, more than 200 officers of the rank of lieutenant stood in the entire large conference room.

There were a lot of people, but the pin drop could be heard in the conference room, and there was no noise, and everyone looked solemnly at the colonel-level officers on the podium to announce the news they had guessed a long time ago.

Yes, everyone knows what the superiors are going to announce today.

After all, the main force of the Qi army has already gathered in southern Liaoning, and all the officers of the General Staff are also there (except for Xu Shiyang), plus everyone has been sorting out and distributing so many cold and warm materials, it would be strange if there were still people in the staff who couldn't guess what it was.

What's more, when it snowed a few days ago, the colonel-level officers had already been assembled for a meeting, and when they came back, although they were tight-lipped about the content of the meeting, from their excited expressions, some of the more clever lieutenants even guessed the main combat goal - it could only be Liaoyang, the ruling center of the Jurchen Tartars!

"Now for the operational briefing!"

A lieutenant colonel could not contain his excitement and shouted to the lieutenants in a slightly trembling voice:

"Target: Liaoyang!"

"Huha!!"

I don't know who was the first to roar excitedly:

"Liaoyang !!"

Although everyone guessed it, when the mystery was revealed, everyone still couldn't hide their excitement.

"Liaoyang !!"

There was a crisp stumbling sound in the conference room, and all the lieutenants drew their swords in their hands, and the blades were pointed high forward, pointing in the direction of Liaoyang.

Point to this city that was stolen by the Jurchens.

……

December 16 of the fifth year of Longdao.

All the newspapers of the Qi State published war announcements on the front page, announcing to the world that 100,000 Qi army iron cavalry had launched an attack on Liaoshen today!

In the afternoon of the same day, after learning that the campaign had been launched, Xu Shiyang convened a meeting of all officials again in Shuncheonfu.

This was a short meeting, at which Xu Shiyang asked everyone to do their jobs and make their due contributions to the motherland.

This was the first time that the word "motherland" was proposed at a formal meeting of the Qi Kingdom, but the participants at the time did not deeply realize the meaning of this term, because it would not take on the symbolic meaning of the mother until much later.

After this unknown meeting, Xu Shiyang immediately left Shuntian Mansion and prepared to go to Jinmen to take a boat to Liaodong.

When the meeting was dismissed, a magistrate of Shuntianfu suddenly said to his companions: "You say, the prince is making such a farce with us, is it acting?" ”

……

In the early morning of the 16th, 100,000 Qi troops divided into five routes and launched a centripetal assault on Liaoyang and Shenzhou at the same time.

Among them, the First Route Army, with the Pingyuan Division and the Jiyuan Division as the main force, a total of 15,000 field troops, and 13,000 reserves and militia in charge of logistics, set out from Niangniang Palace near the mouth of the Liao River, and went north along the river to attack Dongchang Fort, Dongsheng Fort, and Changning Fort, and closed the Jin Great Wall (when the Jurchens were strong, in order to prevent the Mongols from looting a section of the Great Wall built in Liaozhong), and then attacked Liaoshen.

The Second Army is the main force, including the four field divisions of Dingyuan, Zhenyuan, Zhiyuan, and Jingyuan, the Blue Army Brigade, the Trap Brigade, the Marine Corps, and a large number of independent cavalry and artillery units, with a total of 45,000 field troops and 50,000 auxiliary soldiers.

The Third Route Army, with the Yuyuan Army as the main force, with a strength of 8,000 field troops and 10,000 auxiliary soldiers, set out from Xiuyan, passed through a large area of Lingguan, and attacked Haizhou from the east.

The Fourth Route Army, with the Jingyuan and Laiyuan armies as the main forces, with a strength of 15,000 field troops and 18,000 auxiliary troops, set out from Phoenix/Tongyuanbao/Lianshanguan to directly threaten Liaoyang.

In addition, this army can be supported by 10,000 new troops and 20,000 auxiliaries from Goryeo.

The last route was a small army from the north to the south from the Molong River, with a total of 700 armed Han Chinese, and another 3,500 savage Jurchens who had defected to the Qi State.

The Fifth Route Army, with a total field army of about 83,000 people, auxiliary soldiers of about 91,000 people, and another servant army of nearly 34,000, this is a real army of 200,000!