As the Song army in the Jianghuai area continued to move north, even if the Guide Mansion had 50,000 troops, it could not withstand the siege, in order to preserve the military strength, Wan Yanliang ordered the Jin army to retreat in the direction of Bianjing, shrink the defensive line, and concentrate the troops.

In the end, the Jin army deployed a solid defense line that could support and respond to each other on the front line of Lanyang, Tongxu County, Qi County, and Weishi County, which were dozens of miles away from Bianjing.

When the defensive line was completed, the offensive momentum of the Song army was blocked.

Zhang Jun and Cheng Min were blocked in Qi County, Wu Gong was blocked in Weishi County, Yang Congyi was blocked in Lanyang County, and although the Song army had 150,000 troops to press the border, it was basically impossible to capture Bianjing at present.

According to the judgment of Wan Yan Liang and a group of courtiers and generals, even if the entire Song army was pressed, it would be impossible to force the Jin army to retreat from the outskirts of Bianjing for dozens of miles to the vicinity of Bianjing, let alone besiege Bianjing.

Although Wan Yanliang and some generals were optimistic about the Northern Expedition of the Song Army, the minds of the courtiers were in the north, and the south was not a place to live for a long time, not to mention that the Song Dynasty also changed the young and vigorous new emperor.

After Song Taizu, the new emperor ascended the throne, and he was bound to do something to comfort the ancestors and prove to the subjects of the world that he was indeed worthy of the throne.

It is precisely because they saw the situation of the Song Dynasty clearly that the courtiers of Wanyan Liang knew that the Song army could not treat Bianjing at present, but they were still very worried, because Bianjing would not be peaceful from now on, so it was better to go back to the north earlier.

But Wan Yanliang didn't speak, and no one dared to propose that the capital be moved away from Bianjing.

As a result, Bianjing was in the midst of people's hearts and ushered in a snowy winter.

The Northern Expeditionary Army of the Great Song Dynasty led by Zhang Jun and Wu Gong fell into a stalemate with the Jin army stationed in Qixian, Weishi, Tongxu and other places outside Bianjing.

Wan Yan Liang and the Bianjing courtiers had learned that Wan Yan Yong's army was confined to Hejian Province and was not allowed to move lightly.

Since two years ago, the three sides have faced off for more than a year, and the attacks launched by Song Guo and Wan Yan Yong have been more than four months later, as Wan Yan Liang shrinks the front and retreats, the three sides are once again in a stalemate.

Which force is beneficial, let's not talk about it for the time being, anyway, for the main battle faction of the Great Song Dynasty led by Zhang Jun, they can't afford to wait, because their age is there, if the Northern Expeditionary Army can't achieve results in one go, it will be difficult for them to see the day when the Central Plains will be restored, and if they can't restore the Central Plains, it will be difficult for them to leave their names in history.

Zhang Jun can't wait, Chen Kangbo can't wait, they are over sixty years old, their energy is low, and they know that they are afraid that time is running out.

After Laba, the snow melted after many days of sunny weather.

Zhang Jun wrote a letter to ask about the situation of the Northern Expedition, and the letter bluntly said that greater results should be achieved before the year, congratulating the emperor, and giving Longxing a happy ending in the first year.

In fact, Zhang Jun himself was also very anxious, but he had no choice but to have several heavy snowfalls in a row, which disrupted the battle plan, and the Great Song army could not take the initiative to attack.

Now that the weather is fine and the snow is melting, it is time to set out on the expedition.

On the twelfth day of the lunar month, Zhang Jun and Wu Gong made an appointment, asking the other party to send 30,000 people, and he to send 50,000 people, and the two armies attacked Tongxu on the eighteenth day of the lunar month.

On the fifteenth day of the lunar month, Zhang Jun replied to Wu Gong and agreed to lead the army to make a detour to attack Tongxu.

On the eighteenth day of the lunar month, the two armies of Wu Gong and Cheng Min met outside the city of Tongxu, the Jin army closed the city and did not dare to go out, and the Song army rested and prepared for two days.

Two days later, on the twentieth day of the lunar month, Wu Gong ordered his troops to attack the west gate, and Cheng Min ordered his troops to attack the east gate.

After two hours of fierce fighting, the city could not be broken, and the Song army suffered heavy losses, and Mingjin withdrew his troops.

That night, the Jin army sent a small force out of the city and attacked the Song army camp at night, although it was repulsed, the Song army soldiers did not have a rest at ease.

On the second day, the two armies fought again, and the attack became more violent.

The soldiers inside and outside the city fought fiercely for several hours, the west gate was broken, and the Wu Gong army attacked the city several times, but was repelled by the Jin army.

At the same time, the siege of Cheng Min was unfavorable, with heavy casualties and weakened offensive, which failed to put enough pressure on the Jin army's city defense.

The two armies fought until dusk, and each withdrew its troops.

The Jin army rested overnight at the West City Gate and rebuilt the city defenses.

That night, the Jin army attacked the Song army camp again at night, and the soldiers were not disturbed by the attack, and they had no sleep all night.

On the third day of the re-battle, the Song army's offensive had weakened, and after a day of fighting, no results were obtained.

On the same day, Wei Shi and Qi County each sent tens of thousands of Jin troops to help, and stationed troops ten miles away to respond.

Upon hearing the news of the Jin Army's coming to help, the morale of the low-level soldiers of the Song Army immediately fluctuated, and in addition, they had not been able to rest for several days, and they were cold, and their morale was even more depressed, and they had no heart to fight again.

That night, the weather changed suddenly, and after a few hours of howling north wind, it snowed heavily.

The whole army did not carry more food and grass, and had a maximum of five days to siege the city, and if the city could not be captured in three days, it should consider retreating.

Now that there is a sudden heavy snowfall, once the heavy snow closes the road, the Song army will be in a dilemma under the city, and it will be difficult for the rear supplies to keep up.

He also heard that the siege was unfavorable and the morale of the soldiers had been lost, and after a group of commanders made a noise, Cheng Min immediately decided to withdraw overnight.

Before the news of the retreat spread, Cheng Min took the lead in leaving the camp with his personal guard troops under the escort of the Chinese army.

Hearing that the Chinese army escorted the main general to retreat, the officers and men of all departments immediately pulled out the camp to follow, and retreated at full speed to the large camp in the direction of Qixian.

The Jin army in the city detected the retreat of the Song army, and immediately sent troops to pursue it at night, and then covered up the killing.

The Jin army, which was responding ten miles away from the Song army's camp, learned that the Song army had retreated overnight and quickly intercepted the pursuit.

In the wind and snow, the Song army had no intention of resisting, and only wanted to flee with the main general.

So a pursuit battle unfolded in the vast land east of Tongxu, and under the one-sided attack, countless Song soldiers who were unable to fight for their lives were killed by the sabers and guns of Jin.

In the pursuit, the iron-clad infantry outperformed the light cavalry on their horses, and it was a one-sided killing.

In the west of the city, it's a different story.

When Wu Gong heard that Cheng Min suddenly led the army to evacuate, he immediately ordered the front army to go forward and lay out a large defensive array.

In the dark, the Jin army in the city did not know the inside of the Song army camp in the west of the city, and sent thousands of cavalry to explore the camp, but was soon surrounded by the Song army, and only a few hundred horsemen fled back to the city at night.

Then, Wu Gong ordered to take advantage of the victory to attack the city, and the soldiers of the former army pounced on the west gate that had been repaired again, and the Jin army in the city hurriedly transferred troops to defend, and was almost broken by the Song army.

Just when the front army was attacking the city, Wu Gong ordered the rear army to change into the front army, retreat five miles overnight, and the Chinese army was deployed in place to stand by.

When the rear army withdrew from Wuli, the troops of the front army besieging the city were immediately ordered to retreat.

The Jin army in the city saw the Song army attacking the city retreating in a hurry, and the main general in the west of the city immediately understood that the Song army's siege was fake, and it was true to cover the retreat of the large army overnight, so he immediately opened the city gate and led the army to pursue later.

But what they didn't expect was that they had just chased out less than three miles, and they could catch up with the retreating Song army, and they didn't want to suddenly rush out of countless Song troops left and right to surround them.

In the wind and snow and darkness, the enemy's situation was unknown, and in a hurry, the Jin army commander thought that he had been tricked by the Song army to lure the enemy, and for the safety of the city, he immediately ordered the troops to retreat back to the city.

But the snowy night, the vision is blurred, and it is full of confidence in the pursuit, now suddenly encountered the Song army ambush, there is no formation at all, the military order can not be far at all, the Jin army that went out of the city to pursue immediately fell into chaos, one is desperately fighting with the Song army, one is retreating in a hurry, and some do not know what happened, spinning in place, waiting for the military order.

In the end, after nearly half an hour of fierce fighting, the Jin army, which had not had time to escape from the encirclement, was annihilated.

After destroying the pursuing Jin army, the Chinese army immediately retreated.

It didn't take long for them to catch up with the rear army that was waiting in formation five miles away.

Then, according to Wu Gong's order, the Chinese army, like the front army, continued to retreat back for five miles, leaving the rear army to cover the retreat.

The Jin army, which originally came from Wei's and garrisoned ten miles away from the Wu Gongbu camp, discovered that the Song army had suddenly retreated and planned to take advantage of the chaos to attack, but it did not dare to attack in a big way, so it sent a thousand people to try, not wanting to make a little contact in the dark, and was defeated by the Song army, and only a few hundred people fled back, so the Jin army of less than 10,000 people hurriedly retreated five miles north to avoid the Song army's retreat route in case it was surrounded by the Song army.

The Jin army, who fled back to Tongxu City, had just returned to the city, and heard the report of the spies who rushed back afterwards that the Song army had retreated in a big way, and the Jin army commander was immediately remorseful.

After this battle, the west city gate was breached, and he would definitely be held accountable, thinking of this pursuit and failure, the more he thought about it, the more he was afraid, the more angry he became.

After a while, I made up my mind that we must take advantage of the hurried retreat of the Song army to get enough military merits to atone for the crime, otherwise I am afraid that what awaits him is not only demotion, dismissal, but now is an extraordinary period, once the situation eases and begins to be held accountable, he will not only lose his official position, but also likely to punish the crime.

The decision has been decided, and before the general of the army in the west of the city is directed, the general of the west of the city should lead more than 10,000 people out of the city from the west gate and chase after the retreating Song army.

The winds became wilder and the snow became heavier, and the Song and Jin armies in the east and west directions of Tongxu County faced exactly opposite situations.

Cheng Min led the guards under the escort of 20,000 Chinese troops, braved the snow all the way to the camp in the east of Qixian County, and behind them was the Jin army of 3,000 light cavalry, the Jin army pursued in the wind and snow, everywhere he went, he only needed to find the target in the dark, and slashed at the Song army that was running on the ground.

The light cavalry pursued closely, the Song army only cared about fleeing for their lives, the general fled on horseback, the soldiers could only rely on two legs, and the commanders and generals of some horses all fled in front, and the rear army had no one to command at all, so they could only run forward with the tide with their heads bored.

As the wind and snow became bigger and bigger, the vision became more and more unclear, and the tens of thousands of soldiers who were left behind by Cheng Min were rushed by the light cavalry of the Jin army, and they were quickly dispersed into several parts.

But whether the soldiers of the Song Army can escape their lives, one looks at themselves, the second looks at the Jin Army, and the third looks at the Mandate of Heaven, but in the end, it depends on themselves.

The two armies of Song and Jin in the west of Tongxu County had different fates.

Chased out from the west of the city, chased the Jin army, which had retreated from the Song army for nearly an hour, and finally caught up with the Song army, but what awaited them was a seemingly endless ambush.