In Gu'an County, the city gate is closed, and the grass and trees are all soldiers.

As soon as they saw the approaching army, they immediately went to the city to stand on guard.

Seeing such a formation in the city, Yang Congyi took the guards and the Jingwu forbidden army to stop a mile away from the city.

Without an order, the first lieutenant of the Guards immediately led two subordinates to call the door.

"Generalissimo Yang Shuai of the Northern Expedition is here, open the door quickly!" The Guards Captain shouted.

When the soldiers of the city heard this, they did not immediately open the city according to the order, and the general of the city replied, "Do you have a certificate?" ”

"Yang Shuai himself is here, what more proof do you need! Open the door quickly, delay the important matter, take you to ask! "The captain has no lust on his face and no good on his chest.

"There is an order from the rulers, and no one is allowed to enter the city without conclusive evidence! Whether you are really from the Shuai Mansion or the enemy pretending to be an enemy, use it as a proof! "The city guards are unmoved.

"Blind your dog eyes, Yang Shuai is in the army, don't you recognize it? What more credentials! The lieutenant was furious, he had never seen anyone who dared to be so rude to Yang Shuai.

"I can't see it, I can't see it clearly, and I can't recognize it, so if I want to enter the city, I have to bring the voucher, otherwise I will stay outside the city! If you dare to approach the city gates, you will be regarded as an enemy! The city guards were also enraged, and not only did not retreat, but also uttered threatening words.

"If you don't recognize it, I'll call you Liu Du to control it!" The lieutenant shouted angrily.

Yang Congyi rushed over with the Jingwu Forbidden Army all the way, it must be an urgent military situation, and now the city gate can't be opened, and Yang Shuai has to wait, how to make the captain of the Guards not annoyed.

The Song army in Gu'an City was timid and withdrew all the way from the big camp hundreds of miles away in the north, which turned the overall situation of the Northern Expedition into a crisis.

As these words were spoken, the city fell into a brief silence.

On the city, a captain beside the guard general whispered comfort: "My lord, this army is neat and well-equipped, although they are all cavalry, they don't look like enemy troops, they don't have such military appearance. The herald sent by Yang Shuai entered the city the day before yesterday, and there was an accident in the north, and it was not impossible for him to rush back in a hurry, or he should report to Lord Liu first and let Lord Liu decide. ”

"The enemy is cunning, and there is no guarantee that they will not imitate us. You see, the war horses under them are under the water, how can the Great Song Dynasty have such an army, eighty percent of them may be the enemy army pretending. ”

The guard looked at the huge cavalry outside the city, frowned, and then said: "Yang Shuai returned to Jinan Mansion, I heard that he was going to meet him, in this case, Yang Shuai must accompany the emperor to the north, and the speed is not fast, not to mention coming to Bazhou and Gu'an, even to Hejian Mansion, it will be at least a month later." It's better to be careful with these people outside the city, otherwise no one can afford to take care of something wrong. ”

"My lord, the last general heard that there is a forbidden army in the forbidden army of the front division of the palace, all of which are cavalry, well-equipped, and there are tens of thousands of people, and they are stationed near Bianjing, could it be them?" The lieutenant asked.

"I naturally know that the forbidden army is guarding Bianjing. This time, the emperor will definitely bring them with him. But that forbidden army is very special, it is said that it is the best equipped and strongest army in the entire Great Song Dynasty, they leave Bianjing, they must be the important task of guarding the imperial camp, even if they go north, they are also escorting the emperor to come, it is impossible to leave the emperor to go north alone. Not only that, but it is impossible to say in time, they will never appear in Gu'an at this time, then there is only one possibility, the army in front of them wearing the clothes and armor of the Song army is the enemy pretending. ”

After all, the enemy army has occupied the previous camp of the two armies, and there are a lot of materials in it, including a lot of armor, and it is not impossible for the enemy to wear the clothes and armor of the Song army to deceive the city gate.

Just when the guards and captains of the city suspected the origin of the men and horses under the city, and suspected that they were disguised by the enemy army, they suddenly saw several horsemen and horses in the army outside the city.

Then I heard the city shouting: "The generalissimo of the Northern Expedition is here!" Let Liu Du come out and speak! ”

The guards of the city took a fixed look, and saw that one of the several horsemen and horses dozens of feet away was different from the armor, it was the marshal dress, and the enemy army could not pretend to come, so he panicked, and immediately ordered his subordinates to report to the commander.

"Wait a minute! Lord Liu will be here later! ”

Although the guard was still not sure whether the person dressed as the general outside the city was the generalissimo of the Northern Expedition himself, he did not dare to insist anymore. However, he did not order the city gate to be opened, after all, there were more than 10,000 cavalry outside the city, and if he misjudged, he could not afford to lose his life.

Since he had rushed to the city of Gu'an, seeing that Gu'an was fine, Yang Congyi was a little comforted in his heart, and the soldiers in Guancheng did not look like they had lost all their morale, which meant that they were still saved, and they were indispensable to take Yanjing.

About two quarters of an hour later, the city gate opened, and a general rushed to the outside of the city with a group of generals, rode a horse straight to Yang Congyi, and bowed after falling off the horse: "The end will be late, I hope the commander will forgive his sins!" ”

The person who came was not a bystander, it was this army that controlled Liu Yan, he was also regarded as the queen of the gate, but Liu Jian's own nephew, followed Liu Jian from the army for many years, when he abandoned the battle of Guazhou and fled by the imperial court, he was idle at home, and then defected to Bianjing in the Lin'an Change.

Speaking of which, Liu Yan and Yang Congyi have known each other for a long time, when they were in the camp of Guazhou, Yang Congyi was just a small commander, and the two had exchanges in the conference hall, but the world was unpredictable, after the first battle of Guazhou Soaphorn Forest, Yang Congyi gradually became famous all over the world, but Liu Yan betrayed the trust of Liu Kuang, the commander of the army, abandoned the battle and fled, ruining a good future.

However, this Liu Yan also has some ability, after crossing the Yangtze River and Huaihe River to the north to defect to the new emperor Zhao Yan, although he led the troops in Taizhou and Huaiyin, far away from the power center of Bianjing, and even farther away from the northern border, and had nowhere to make meritorious contributions, he was able to quickly gain a firm foothold, and was promoted one after another, from the commander to the commander, and then to the deputy commander, and before the Northern Expedition, he was directly promoted to the high position of the commandery, and he was envious of others.

Yang Congyi can't control these things, and he doesn't want to care, the situation in the army and the DPRK is extremely complicated, as long as he doesn't force him too ruthlessly, he can see it as invisible, in terms of grasping the heat, he still admires Shi Hao's gang very much, they can always promote and install some people just right, and they won't make him too disgusted, and fight back to pull out those people.

Over the years, the Huai River, the Yangtze River Basin, and even the south of the Yellow River, there are basically no Yang Congyi's old subordinates in the garrisons in various places, and even the armies in Shandong Road, Jingbei Road, Hedong Road and other places have been filled with a lot of old subordinates who do not belong to Yang Congyi, he understands that he is in power, and it is inevitable that the court and the emperor are worried and afraid, no matter how loyal he is and how indisputable he is, as long as the military power in his hands is still there, the emperor cannot sleep steadily, and the courtiers and doctors cannot rest assured.

Therefore, in this Northern Expedition, people like Liu Yan, who had escaped from the battlefield and defected to Bianjing, and gained the trust of the imperial court, were also reused by the imperial court.

Originally, the Northern Expedition was the result of a compromise between several parties, and it was natural to compromise on the appointment of generals and commanders of various armies.

Yang Congyi stared at Liu Yan for a moment, and then said, "Let's talk about it when we enter the city." ”

He didn't give the other party a good face, but he would not reprimand Liu Yan in public, after all, Liu Yan is also in command of the army, and he still has to save face.

"Yes." Liu Yan got up and opened the gate to the city.

Yang Congyi was about to urge the horse to enter the city, and suddenly remembered the Jingwu Forbidden Army, so he said to Liu Yan: "Lord Liu, the latter is the Imperial Forbidden Army, follow me to the north, make a place, and let them settle in the city temporarily." ”

"The last general understands, this is arranged." Liu Yan immediately responded, and behaved quite obediently.

"Tell Commander Chen to let the army settle in the city, work for many days, and let the soldiers rest first." Before urging the horse, Yang Congyi gave another order to a personal guard beside him.

After speaking, Yang Congyi took his personal guards and urged the horse into the city, Liu Yan turned over and got on the horse, and followed behind with his generals.

In the marshal's mansion, in a conference hall, Yang Congyi sat in the main seat, and Liu Yan and a group of subordinate generals sat around.

After a few words of greeting, without taking two sips of hot tea, Yang Congyi put down the teacup, raised his eyes to look at Liu Yan, and did not speak, only looked at Liu Yan and beat the drum in his heart.

There was silence in the hall, the atmosphere was very dull, except for Yang Congyi, almost no one dared to raise their eyes, all their eyes were dodgy, they wanted to see but didn't dare to look.

Liu Yan knew that he would definitely not be able to escape this catastrophe today, and if he didn't give an explanation, Yang Congyi would not let himself go easily, so he got up and said: "Yang Shuai, the evacuation of the Haizi camp is indeed a mistake in the judgment of the general, and this responsibility will be borne by the general." The last general immediately pleaded guilty to the imperial court, and asked the imperial court to remove the last general from the post of commander! ”

Yang Congyi frowned slightly, he didn't ask for the crime, this Liu Yan first played the trick of retreating as advance, everyone knew that at this time, the imperial court had no time to remove him, and it would not remove him, let alone remove him because of this matter, he just wanted to gag his mouth when he said this.

But Yang Congyi didn't want to gag himself today, so he said coldly: "Misjudgment? Did you make a mistake in judgment? Whether it is a mistake in judgment, or not obeying the military order and escaping, you should know in your heart. ”

Liu Yan's face changed, and he immediately defended: "Yang Shuai, when I learned that the Hedgehog River camp was captured by the enemy, and after the left army retreated to Zhuozhou, the last general judged that the enemy army was going to break through each one, if the enemy attacked with fast horses and copied the back road of the Haizi camp, the last general was afraid that it would be difficult to wait for the support of the transportation camp, so he ordered to abandon the camp and evacuate urgently." The last general thought that losing a large battalion and keeping the army of the Northern Expedition was the best choice at that time. In fact, this is also implementing Yang Shuai's operational concept of 'not fighting for the gains and losses of one city or one place, preserving one's own vital forces, and eliminating local vital forces'. ”

"Sophistry! How did I explain to you before I left? If you want to hold the camp no matter what, do you listen? When he heard that the Hedgehog River camp was lost, he abandoned the camp and fled! The word 'retreat', you can actually say it! ”