Li Zhang stayed in Yanzhou for three days, these three days he not only often contacted Liu Ping, but also inquired about Liu Ping's personality in the city, and the final result still made him very satisfied, Liu Ping is worthy of both civil and military skills, Wu can go on the horse to kill the enemy, Wen can get off the horse Anbang, at least the security of Yanzhou is much stronger than the next Gyeongju, although they are all border cities, but all ethnic groups in the city live together, but they are not like Gyeongju who draws a knife without a word.

Of course, what satisfies Li Zhang the most is Liu Ping's military talent, in just three days, Liu Ping worked out a general strategy, just like he said before, this attack on Liao must be fast, ruthless, concentrate superior forces to give Liaobian a fatal blow, and the first target is Liao's Nanjing Xijin Mansion, which can be described as very bold.

However, recently the intelligence of the Liao State has been sent, and there were originally nearly 100,000 troops stationed in Xijin Mansion and its surroundings, but now the war between Yelu Zongzhen and Xiao Yunjin is about to break out, among which Yelu Zongzhen has the support of some generals in the north, after all, the north is the birthplace of the Khitans, where many Khitan nobles are more loyal to the royal family.

In order to defeat Yelu Zongzhen, Xiao Yunjin has already transferred 70,000 troops from Xijin Mansion to Zhongjing, and tens of thousands of people have also been transferred to Datong Mansion in Xijing next to it, so that the defenders on the border of Liao have been reduced by more than half, which makes Liu Ping's plan suddenly increase a great chance of victory.

In fact, this is not the first time that the Liao State has drawn troops from the border, in fact, since the alliance of the Yuanyuan, the border between Song and Liao has not had a major war for decades, and occasionally there are some small frictions, which are also provoked by the Liao people, which also makes the Liao people relax the security of the border for a long time, even if they usually garrison heavy troops, but when there is something in the country, they will not hesitate to deploy troops to suppress it.

For example, the Great Yanlin Rebellion in the past two years, the garrison in Liao couldn't be suppressed at all, and finally transferred troops from the border to suppress it, this time the problem is even bigger, after all, it is the emperor and the queen mother who are fighting, and it is also related to the ownership of the imperial power in the future, plus Xiao Yunjin is not a long-term woman, for her own interests, she will not care about the border problem, otherwise she will not allow Li Yuanhao to keep jumping on the border.

Even Li Zhang guessed that if Xiao Yunjin and Yelu Zong really fought, and the battle situation was unfavorable to her, maybe Xiao Yunjin would draw a large army from the border again, even if she was empty of troops, she would not care, after all, for her, if she failed, it would be worse than death, and as for how the Liao State was not in her consideration at all.

It was also in this situation that the holy decree of dismissal of Liu Ping in Li Zhang's arms was not issued, and even the day before he left Yanzhou, he quietly burned the holy decree, which was also the agreement between him and Zhao Zhen, if Liu Ping was in line with the candidate for the main general, then it would be useless to keep this holy decree.

When Li Zhang left Yanzhou, Liu Ping did not come to see him off, not because he didn't want to, but because he couldn't, because just yesterday, Liu Ping set off to Gyeongju and Xingzhou, because this attack on Liao also needed to mobilize 50,000 troops from the northwest, and these 50,000 people would also be personally selected by Liu Ping, so he immediately went to Gyeongju.

Liu Ping's first deputy was Guo Zun, the other party used to be his old subordinate, before Zhao Zhen attacked the party, Guo Zun was also ordered to serve, and later Guo Zun was transferred to Gyeongju, and the garrison of the musketeer army was also in Gyeongju, so Liu Ping's first stop was Gyeongju, in addition, he was also ready to go to Xingzhou to select some troops who had participated in the attack on the party before, these people were veterans who had really been on the battlefield, far stronger than ordinary recruits.

Li Zhang doesn't know much about the military, and now he has appointed Liu Ping as the main general, as the so-called employment is not suspicious, and Zhao Zhen also promised to give him power, so Li Zhang did not interfere in the selection of the army, not to mention that he was also in a hurry to return to Beijing, after all, he promised Qingzhi and them, and said that this round trip would not exceed two months.

ran all the way again, but nothing happened along the way, but just when Li Zhang was about to arrive in the capital, the latest information from the Liao State came again, and this time the information also shocked Li Zhang's spirit, because the intelligence mentioned Yelu Zhirang.

The content of this intelligence is also a great news for the Great Song Dynasty, Yelu Zongzhen and Xiao Yunjin mobilized various armies, respectively in Zhongjing and Shangjing as the center of each other, but both sides are very cautious, the main army has been standing still, and in the end Yelu Zongzhen may be a little unable to hold back, so he was the first to send troops to test.

There is a Huang River between Zhongjing and Shangjing, this Huang River is not the Huang River that flows through Henan in later generations, but the upper reaches of the Liao River, just across between Shangjing and Zhongjing, and another tributary, the Tuhe River, flows into the Liao River together, and the Tuhe River crosses through Zhongjing.

On the east side of the Huang River, there are two big cities of Yikun Prefecture and Longhua Prefecture, and now Xiao Yunjin occupies the advantage of troops, and these two big cities are also under her control, after all, she has been in power for several years before, and she has already purged the Liao State court up and down, and the main positions are almost all held by her people, so as long as she does not die, it will be difficult for Yelu Zongzhen to regain power.

However, Yelu Zongzhen suddenly sent troops this time, and sent Yelu Renxian and Yelu Zhirang as the main generals, and the two of them attacked Longhua Prefecture by surprise, and the result was that they succeeded in one fell swoop and captured the big city of Longhua Prefecture, which also made Yelu Zongzhen's strength soar.

In fact, losing a city has little impact on Xiao Yunjin's strength, after all, her main force is still concentrated near Zhongjing, but the loss of Longhua Prefecture has greatly damaged her prestige, after all, Yelu Zongzhen is the emperor of Liao, and now with the power of a great victory, many nobles who originally rode the wall also began to fall to Yelu Zongzhen.

In particular, the intelligence also mentioned that some Han officials in Xiao Yunjin's rear also began to contact Yelu Zongzhen, most of these Han officials were scholars, so they also favored orthodoxy, so it was normal for them to choose Yelu Zongzhen, and Xiao Yunjin's influence was mainly in the south of Liao, which was the main territory of the Han people, so the vacillation of Han officials also made Xiao Yunjin very annoyed, so he ordered the suppression of a group of Han officials, which temporarily stabilized the situation in the rear.

Yelu Zhirang was mentioned in the intelligence, which also made Li Zhang breathe a sigh of relief, it seems that he guessed correctly before, Yelu Zhirang is really alive, and Yelu Zong really made a good start, which will definitely force Xiao Yunjin to fight with him, in this way, they must hurry up, otherwise when the Liao side is finished, they are not ready to send troops, it will be too late.