After capturing Hongdong County, the Northern Expeditionary Army of the Great Song Dynasty did not attack Pingyang City in one go, but rested on the spot.

A few days later, seeing that the Jin army in Pingyang City was holding on to the city, and there was no sign of reinforcements along the Yellow River in the south, the main force of the Northern Expeditionary Army of the Great Song Dynasty left Hongdong County and approached Pingyang City, which was fifty miles away.

The Jin army was in full array, and the Northern Expeditionary Army of the Great Song Dynasty did not intend to launch an immediate attack.

As a result, the Song army and the Jin army were separated by five miles and faced each other across the city.

Due to the limited strength of the Northern Expeditionary Army, the strength of the two sides was equal, and they did not have the conditions to besiege the city, and Xue Wang did not plan to trap all the Jin troops in the city, so he only set up camps in the direction of the north gate and the west gate of Pingyang City, deployed a large army, and let go of the east gate and south gate to give the other party a chance to escape.

After many years of fighting, Xue Wang also learned a lot of military techniques and strategies with Yang Congyi, how to deal with the Jin army of Pingyang Mansion, as early as when he was resting, he had already thought it through.

The Jin army in Hedong is now low in combat effectiveness, and the two sides are also 40,000 troops, if they set up a position, the Jin army will definitely not take any advantage, and now they only rely on one city, and Xue Wang is very confident that he will capture Pingyang City.

But no matter how smooth the attack is, it will lose troops and generals, which he does not want to see, after all, the entire Northern Expedition West Road Army has so many troops, and when the Hedong is recovered, they still have more important tasks, and they also need more people, and the loss of veterans for the storming of Gaocheng is definitely not worth the loss.

Hongdong County is not high, the city wall is not thick, the siege equipment is in place, the army does not have much resistance to the siege, plus the Northern Expedition army has just arrived in Pingyang Mansion, it is bound to give the Jin army a dismount, so it is necessary to storm the city and completely eliminate the defenders.

There is a battle of Hongdong County, which will definitely make the defenders of all states and counties frightened, and when the army arrives, the Jin army will surrender without a fight, and the soldiers will not be bloody, so they will be able to subdue more descended troops, and when the real soldiers are strong and strong, the merit of recovering the clouds can also be sought.

After entering Pingyang Mansion, Xue Wang's vision is no longer in Pingyang Mansion, Guanzhong is the fame field of the Northwest Army of Sichuan and Shu, and Hedong is the Northern Expedition and the Western Route Army, but this merit is not enough for him to be knighted and crowned king, leave a name in history, seize the Datong Mansion in Xijing of the Jin Kingdom, and catch the Emperor of the Jin State Wanyanliang, so that he can be famous all over the world and glorify his ancestors.

Therefore, for the Jin army in Pingyang City, Xue Wang never thought of besieging them and annihilating them, what he wanted was to seize Pingyang Mansion and recover the entire Hedong, not to destroy many enemies.

On the issue of whether to have land or people, Xue Wang also learned a lot from Yang Congyi, you can use ingenuity to fight, why rely on brute force.

But Xue Wang didn't expect that the Jin army in Pingyang City would obediently retreat south because of the loss of Hongdong County, and the battle that should be fought must also be fought, otherwise where would the 40,000 people get their merits?

Therefore, after ten days of confrontation and confirmation that there was no large army along the Yellow River to support Pingyang City, Xue Wang ordered each army to send one or two battalions to capture the surrounding counties.

Before the departure of the armies, Xue Wang issued an order for the Northern Expedition, if the counties surrendered to the city, they were not allowed to kill people at will, and after entering the city, they controlled the treasury and the government, and they were not allowed to loot the people.

The various departments traveled on horseback and went straight to the target county town assigned by the Shuai Ying.

At the same time, in order to prevent the Jin army in Pingyang City from going out of the city to intercept and capture the small Song army in the county seat, the main force of the Great Song Northern Expeditionary Army in the direction of the north gate and the west gate was deployed near the east gate and the south gate to contain the defenders in the city.

As soon as the main force of the Song army moved, the defenders of Pingyang really closed the four gates, and even the east gate and the south gate, which were occasionally opened for a moment and a half every day, did not dare to open them again, as if they were afraid that the Song army would take the opportunity to attack the city.

Five days later, most of the county towns of Pingyang Province fell into the hands of the Song army, and only two passes near the Yellow River were garrisoned with more troops, which were difficult to conquer for the time being, but with the arrival of reinforcements, it was only a matter of time before the whole of Hedong except Pingyang City was captured.

Sure enough, four days later, the good news reached the Northern Expeditionary Army's Marshal Camp, and all the county towns and passes east of the Yellow River were recovered!

A few days later, detailed war reports from all over the country were sent back to the Shuai camp, and Xue Wang's heart was settled.

Then he asked the army to draft a surrender letter and sent it into Pingyang City with a strong crossbow.

After a short time, the surrender letter flew into the city with a strong crossbow and a seal.

At the beginning, the Left-behind Mansion could also order the collection and burning of all things with words that flew in from outside the city, and forbade anyone to keep and disseminate the contents of the surrender letter without permission, and within a few hours, it aroused the curiosity of many people to take a look.

During the day, no one dared to openly disobey the orders of the Left-behind Mansion, and at night, many of the surrender letters that flew into the city randomly with the crossbow were secretly hidden, and many people wanted to know what the surrender letters sent by the Song Army said and how much they had to do with themselves.

There are very few literate people in the army, and the vast majority of grassroots defenders of the city cannot understand the content of the surrender book, and it is useless to hide it in their hands.

But fortunately, some of them knew some literate shopkeepers, bookkeepers, and readers.

After asking for advice, someone finally figured out the content of the surrender letter sent from outside the city.

In fact, the content of the surrender book is very simple, the book reads: "The people of Hedong land, originally belonged to the Great Song Dynasty, and have been forcibly occupied by Jin so far, it is really a pain in the hearts of the people of the Great Song Dynasty. A few months ago, the Western Route Army of the Northern Expedition of the Great Song Dynasty entered the east of the river from Luzhou, first took Taiyuan Mansion, and then took Xinzhou, and now all the places outside Pingyang City have been recovered, and Pingyang City has been a lonely city, surrounded by the army and people of the Great Song Dynasty! In the north of Yanmen Pass, there are heavy troops stationed in the Northern Expeditionary Army of the Great Song Dynasty, and the Jin army has been attacking for three months without an inch, and has given up rescuing Hedong. At the same time, the 100,000 troops of the Great Song Dynasty, Sichuan and Shu went north to capture Guanzhong, Jingzhao Mansion, Fengxiang Mansion and other places were too busy to take care of themselves, and it was difficult to survive, and it was impossible to rescue Pingyang City! Now, there is only one way out, to surrender in Kaecheng and welcome the Song Dynasty back to Pingyang City, so that you can find a glimmer of life and save your wealth and life. If you leave the city within three days, you will retain the rank of marshal, and the colonel will be promoted to three ranks, and the lieutenant will be promoted to two ranks, and ordinary soldiers can decide to stay on their own. If you refuse to leave the city, three days later, the army will attack the city, and on the day the city is broken, you will not accept the surrender of the generals, and you will not accept the surrender of officials! ”

As more and more surrender letters flew into the city, and as the content of the surrender letters spread rapidly among the army, the left-behind mansion had no way to collect and destroy all the surrender letters, and in the end they had no choice but to give up.

A day later, the contents of the surrender letter spread throughout the city, and the thoughts of the people and defenders of the city surged.

It's been two or three months, the north has not seen the reinforcements of Datong Mansion, the south has not seen the reinforcements of Guanzhong, Xinzhou and Taiyuan have long fallen into the Song army, these situations are clear to the defenders and the people in the city, as for whether the counties of Pingyang Mansion can hold on, they know better, the main force of the Jin army is in Pingyang City, how to defend the small local counties?

There is no doubt that the Song army did not deceive them, Pingyang City is indeed a lonely city at the moment, or a lonely city with no one to rescue.

The question of whether to continue to hold on, or to surrender immediately out of the city, the question of choosing one of the two was quickly placed in front of everyone in front of the defenders of Pingyang City, including the big families in the city.

What will happen if you surrender, and what will happen if you don't surrender, through the previous battle of Song and Jin in Hongdong County, they all have a clear judgment.

Everyone knows very well that the Jin State has gone to Pingyang Mansion, since eight years ago, the Jin Emperor Wan Yan Liang took the Manchu Dynasty civil and military forces and hundreds of thousands of elite troops through Pingyang Mansion to Taiyuan Mansion and returned to Datong Mansion, Jin Guo is destined to withdraw from the Central Plains, Guanzhong, and Hedong.

As the thoughts of the soldiers and civilians in Pingyang City surged, the dark chess arranged earlier also began to play a role, and they launched a tandem in the army and the people, planning to seize the gate and leave the city.

In just one day, there were no less than 10,000 people secretly conspiring.

The whole team, the whole battalion and the whole army are swaying, and the heart of sticking to Pingyang City has long been shaken, because they all know that it is meaningless to stick to it except to send their lives, not to mention that the vast majority of the soldiers and civilians in the city are still Han and Song people, so why bother to send their lives to the distant Datong Mansion Jin people who can no longer control them.

Not only are the grassroots soldiers undecided, but even the high-level generals are also in a hurry, they are not thinking about surrendering or defending, but about surrendering or fleeing, and holding on to Pingyang City is no longer in their consideration.

Surrendering to the Great Song Dynasty, they could not guarantee that the Song court would keep their promises, retain their official positions, and give them the treatment they deserved, and they could not guarantee that the Song court would not say one thing and do another, first trick them into surrendering, and then kill them, so the high-ranking officials did not fully believe the words in the surrender letter.

And if you want to break through from Pingyang City, escape to Guanzhong, or flee to the north, there will not be a good ending, if you flee to Guanzhong, under the attack of the Song army on three sides, it will be difficult to escape the doom in the end, if you flee over the mountains and mountains to the north, there is no food and grass supply, then you can't bring many people, there are no soldiers in your hands, even if you go to the north, the emperor will not be held accountable, and it will not have much status, and the general of the defeated army will not be reused.

For most people, whether it is to surrender to the Song army or to escape, it is not the best choice, but at this moment, the army is besieging the city, and there are no reinforcements in the east, west, north and south, so they can't help it.

Just when the generals were deliberating left and right and it was difficult to choose, the low-level soldiers and low-ranking officers had already made their choice.

On the second night of the Northern Expeditionary Army of the Great Song Dynasty sending the surrender letter into Pingyang City, just after the hour, the defenders of the east gate of Pingyang City were suddenly surrounded by thousands of gold troops, and the two sides quickly formed a confrontation.

"Pingyang is already a lonely city, there are Song troops everywhere outside, there are no reinforcements, the brothers are in the army to survive, now we have to go out of the city, whoever stops us is our enemy! Get out of the way! ”

"Get out of the way!"

"Get out of the way!"

.........

One person spoke, and everyone agreed, and the momentum was not small.

But where is the duty of the city gate guards, and if the remaining government does not give an order, how dare they open the city gate?

From a distance of three feet, the two sides are getting closer and closer, and they may start at any time and a conflict will break out.

But as the follow-up soldiers quickly came to the vicinity of the east gate and joined the ranks who wanted to leave the city, the city gate defenders began to retreat, because they knew that they could not stop the surging public opinion, not to mention that the soldiers in the city gate defenders were also fluctuating.

Seeing that there was an opportunity, the soldiers who stormed the city gate were a little ruthless, and the defenders abandoned the city gate.

The east gate of Binh Duong City was opened.