After the fall of Bazhou, the Jurchen army rested for a day after capturing Bazhou, and did not go south for the time being. But Xiongzhou City, which is less than three days away from Bazhou, has become the first target of the next attack, and both sides understand this. Xiongzhou City was led by the privy deputy envoy Bai Qi, and a large number of soldiers and horses who had retreated from Bazhou fled to Xiongzhou in the past two days, and Bai Qi had also received the news of the attack of the Jurchen army. Bai Qi immediately reported the military situation to the imperial court, and at the same time, he was also ready for a decisive battle with the Jurchens.

Xiongzhou City is the central city that radiates a large area of northeast border towns, and is the transit place for border towns. If Xiongzhou is lost, it is equivalent to being broken spine, Bai Qi deeply understands this. Therefore, in an urgent letter to the imperial court, he asked for permission to immediately order the Ansu Army and the Guangxin Army in the border town on the west side, the Baoding Army on the east side, and the Shun'an Army and Yongning Army in the southwest of Xiongzhou to move closer to Xiongzhou. He planned to take advantage of Xiongzhou's geographical advantage to gather most of the soldiers and horses in the border towns to fight the Jurchens in Xiongzhou.

If the five armies of Ansu, Guangxin, Baoding, Shun'an and Yongning could gather in Xiongzhou, then the Great Zhou Society would gather a huge force of 280,000 troops, relying on the fortified city of Xiongzhou and the terrain near the left, they could fight to the death with the Jurchens, cut off all the roads for the Jurchens to the south, and keep the enemy out of the inland cities.

However, the Jurchens were obviously not fools, and during the two days they were resting in Bazhou, Wanyan Aguda made the decision to divide the troops into the east and west and break into the interior. He ordered Yalu Buhua and Hu Lu to lead 50,000 cavalry from the area between Xiongzhou and Ansu to the southwest inland of the Great Zhou Dynasty, and at the same time, Wanyan Aguda himself led all the remaining soldiers and horses to attack Xiongzhou according to the original route, occupying the most important transit hub of materials, grain and grass in this large surrounding town.

The reason why Wanyan Aguda made such a decision was to use Yalu Buhua and Hulu's light cavalry to go south and force them in the direction of Bianliang, so as to mislead the opponent and make the opponent dare not gather all his troops and horses in Xiongzhou to fight a decisive battle with him. Once Bianliang, the capital of the Great Zhou Dynasty, was threatened, it was possible to force the Great Zhou court to make the wrong decision to transfer troops and horses internally, rather than to assemble to meet the enemy, which would hinder its own advance. Because for the fortified city of Xiongzhou, it is not feasible to use the method to deal with Bazhou. Xiongzhou's defense system is not comparable to that of Bazhou, the number of bed crossbows is huge, and a large number of enemy buildings are built. The four city gates are the most difficult to attack the urn city gate structure. The kind of siege method of Tiefutu will be useless in Xiongzhou. Therefore, in order to attack Xiongzhou, all the siege equipment must be in place, and the posture must be set up to carry out a serious attack. Once it enters this rhythm, the other party has time to calmly reinforce it, which is the last thing Wanyan Aguda wants to see.

At the same time as making the decision to divide the troops to confuse the enemy, Wanyan Aguda issued an eagle envoy to ask the Liao army, which had already captured Daizhou in the west, not to stay, and to continue to approach Bianliang in the south. further pressure on the Great Zhou court.

Three days later, a cavalry attacked the county seat of Baicheng in succession

。 This small city is already more than 300 miles away from the border, and there are not many soldiers and horses stationed, there are less than 200 defenders and 300 regiments in the city to train soldiers and horses. Without much effort, 50,000 Jurchen cavalry rushed like Baicheng County, and the people in the city suddenly fell into hell. In one night, more than 6,000 people were slaughtered in the city, men were killed, and women were raped. Children are not spared when they are killed after adultery. After a night of madness, when the Jurchen cavalry left, the small county town that had been peaceful and quiet had become a scorched earth. Except for the people who fled, the rest of the people were almost slaughtered, and all the houses were burned down. This group of vicious wolves set their sights on Wangdu County, a small county town eighty miles away.

The fate of Wangdu County was the same, after Yalu Buhua and Hu Lu led a large army to arrive, they attacked the city without much effort. The small city also quickly fell into hell. Next is Dingxian and Xinle County, from north to south, the route of the Jurchen attack is all the way to the southeast, straight to Bianliang, along the way to kill people and set fire to rape. Lust and plunder, clean up the things that have lost all conscience.

In the northwest, the Liao army also connected the two state cities of Dingxiang and Yizhou within a few days, and the 160,000 troops rushed straight to Taiyuan Fu.

……

Bianliang, the capital of the Great Zhou Dynasty, has long been full of news that the Liao and Jurchens have attacked the Great Zhou for many days. There was an atmosphere of panic throughout the city. The Liao people were originally the faint fear in the hearts of the people of the Great Zhou, and now with the addition of a Jurchen army, how could they not make the people panic.

In addition, all kinds of news are constantly coming, and the real and fake are flying all over the sky. It is said that the soldiers and horses of the Liao army and the Jurchens have been rushing straight to Bianliang, burning and looting along the way, killing countless people. Some say that the Liao State and the Jurchen army are less than ten days away from Bianliang, the imperial court soldiers and horses have been defeated, and the emperor is ready to leave the capital to hide. What's more, this time it was the emperor who offended the Jurchens and the Liao, and originally signed a tripartite friendly agreement, but the emperor was rude to the envoys of the two countries, and refused to fulfill the agreement and treacherously when he saw death, so the two countries united to crusade against the injustice of the Great Zhou.

There are many kinds of news, but one thing they all have in common is that all news is bad news, not good news. These reports are further corroborated by the increase in the number of displaced people fleeing from the north. It is said that the entire Hebei East and West Road, as well as Hedong Road, are all in flames of war. The Liao and Jurchen people in the mouths of the exiles are simply devils and extremely ferocious. Some people describe the situation of the Jurchens killing people, they take maces and hit people's heads, and when the stick goes down, the head will crack like a watermelon, and there is no chance to snort. It is also said that they eat people, roasting children like lambs on bamboo poles on the fire, and then gnawing on them.

In short, in just half a month, the capital is like boiling water, and no one can feel at ease

Down, day by day in panic. Large families with the conditions have begun to send their children to the state capital in the south. Of course, the vast majority of the people can't leave, not because of the complex that their homeland is difficult to leave, but because they have nowhere to go after leaving the capital. In such a cold winter, they don't want to be reduced to people who freeze and starve to death outside. If you stay in the capital, at least you won't die. After all, the emperor is still there, the forbidden army is still there, and the court is still there, will the court ignore his people?

In this state of mind, there are many helpless self-deprecation and comforting words. For example, among the words of comfort among the people of the capital recently, there is a sentence 'He has a mace, I have a heavenly spirit cover'. This also reflects the helplessness and helplessness of the people, and even some of the broken jars.

The court was also in chaos, and the news of the Jurchens and Liao's brazen attack finally shattered Guo Xu's luck. He knew that the consequences of the previous rejection of the other party had come. This month's calm is not that the other party swallows his anger, but that the other party is gearing up and preparing for the attack.

However, Guo Xu was a little relieved. It's a little incredible to say, Guo Xu really has a sense of relief. The big stick hanging over his head finally fell, and it had been hanging above his head before, and he didn't know when it hit it hard. Now that it's finally down, there's no more of that burning feeling that you're about to fall. Now things are simpler, and there is no need to think about the invading enemy with all your might.

It's easier said than done, but it's easier said than done to fight the invading enemy with all your might. The war reports of the border towns arrived in the capital continuously, Bazhou fell, Yanmen Pass and Daizhou fell, and then several county towns and prefectures that were getting closer and closer to Bianliang were bloodbathed by the other party. Taiyuan Mansion was besieged by the Liao again, and the situation seemed to have collapsed. The entire court was panicked, and the officials and ministers were helpless, not knowing what to do. In this situation, Guo Xu also panicked.

The odious thing is that since Guo Xu insisted on rejecting the conditions of the Jurchens and the Liao people last time, and had some disputes with Lu Zhongtian, Lu Zhongtian has treated things negatively with a cold and onlooker attitude. Lu Zhongtian hadn't even been to the morning court for more than ten days, so he chose to hang Guo Xu and let Guo Xu know how many catties and taels he was. Guo Xu didn't care about this at first, but when all the courtiers in the early court couldn't provide any plan recently, Guo Xu could only ask his grandfather for permission again. In this case, only my grandfather can preside over the overall situation, and I really can't do without him. Or rather...... I can't even mobilize troops and horses now, and even if I have some ideas, I can't put them into practice. The ministers were obviously silent because their grandfather didn't take a stand, and no one really thought about themselves, and they were actually a loner. You have to recognize this fact.

So, Guo Xu personally went to see Lu Zhongtian and asked for his forgiveness.