In the first year of Song Longxing, on August 22, the news of the Northern Expeditionary Army's recovery of Defu reached Lin'an, and the imperial court was boiling.

The main battle faction proposed to take advantage of the victory to pursue and recover Bianjing in one fell swoop!

Even Yang Cunzhong, Shi Hao and other main battle conservatives were coerced by the victory of the Northern Expeditionary Army, and gave up the previous insistence of "accumulating strength and slowly drawing on it".

Zhao Yan, who was young and vigorous and had only been on the throne for one year, urgently needed victory to accumulate prestige, stabilize his position in the hearts of the courtiers, and quickly prove to the world that he was a promising emperor.

The Northern Expeditionary Army successively captured Heunginfu, Jeju, and Guidechu, and had formed a situation of encirclement in the east and south of Bianjing, and Zhao Yan's confidence was greatly increased.

The ministers of the main war faction of the DPRK and China and the emperor quickly reached a consensus: the Northern Expeditionary Army took advantage of the victory to pursue and recover Bianjing within the year!

The edict was issued from Lin'an the next day, and it was delivered 800 miles in a hurry, going straight to Xuyi, Suzhou, Guide, and Xingren, and ordered the whole army to go north and go straight to Bianjing.

When the order arrived at Xuyi, Zhang Junti Jianghuai's 30,000 troops immediately went north from Xuyi, passed through Suzhou, and entered the territory of Guide Province.

On the day of entering the city, Zhang Jun gathered in the name of the commander of the Northern Expeditionary Army to discuss matters, and all the army commanders, deputy commanders and commanders entered the camp to salute, and they all declared that they were restrained by it.

After gathering power, most of the defenders of Chenzhou, Bozhou, and Suzhou were transferred to Guide Mansion, and Zhang Jun's troops reached 120,000, and if the Song army of Xingren Mansion was added, the total strength reached 160,000.

Zhang Jun, who had a heavy army, immediately began to plan for the restoration of Bianjing, but he never summoned Yang Congyi, who was in Xingren Mansion, nor did he give him any military orders or passwords, as if there was no 40,000 Song army in Xingren Mansion.

Just when Guide Mansion was making urgent preparations to recover more old land, Xingren Mansion was only training troops, but there were not many major movements, and all counties were also mainly defensive, and no longer took the initiative to attack and harass the Jin army.

On the fifth day of the ninth month, Zhang Jun made an appointment with Xiangyang Yu Yunwen and Wu Gong, and the two armies made a northern expedition on the east and the west, divided their troops and attacked together, and took Bianjing together.

On September 23, the first batch of grain and grass from Jianghuai arrived in Guidefu.

On September 25, Zhang Jun sat in the town of Guide Mansion and ordered Chenzhou to command Su Zhong to lead 20,000 troops, Suzhou to command Xue Wang to lead 20,000 troops, and Infantry Division to command Cheng Min to lead 40,000 troops, a total of 80,000 troops to attack Sui County, where 30,000 Jin troops were stationed.

The Jin army abandoned the city and fled, and Sui County fell into a battle.

On September 29, Su Zhong, Xue Wang, and Cheng Min were ordered to attack Chengang again.

On the second day of October, before the Song army reached the city of Chengang, the Jin army abandoned the city and retreated.

In less than ten days, the Northern Expeditionary Army connected two counties, less than two hundred miles away from Bianjing, and seeing that it would soon approach Bianjing, Zhang Jun was full of spirits.

On the third day of October, Zhang Jun ordered Cheng Min, Xue Wang, and Su Zhong to lead their troops to pursue and take advantage of the victory to capture Qi County.

On the fifth day of October, the 80,000 Northern Expeditionary Army pursued to Qixian County under the leadership of Cheng Min, Su Zhong and others, and confronted the 60,000 Jin troops who had retreated all the way from Guidefu, Cao County, Ningling, Sui County, Chengang and other places across the river in the east of the city.

Seeing that the Jin army had set up a large camp and had prepared in advance, Cheng Min did not dare to attack rashly, so that the whole army and the Jin army were three miles away and camped across the river, Su Zhong and Xue Wang suggested retreating five miles, but there was a huge gap between the seniority of the two troops and Cheng Min, and their proposal was ignored.

The 80,000 Song troops hurriedly set up camp, and the Jin army on the other side of the river closed their camps and did not dare to send troops to harass.

There is not much difference in the strength of the two sides, and everyone knows that it is impossible for their side to win in a battle, and even if it wins, it will be a disastrous victory, and if it loses, it will definitely be a fiasco, so they dare not move lightly.

After five days of confrontation across the river, Zhang Jun sent a letter from Guide Mansion urging the battle, ordering Cheng Min, Su Zhong, Xue Wang and others to defeat the Jin army and capture Qixian within two days.

However, Qixian is the last gateway to the southeast of Bianjing, and the Jin people gather 60,000 troops to garrison it, how can it be so easy to capture?

But the military order has been issued, and Cheng Min, Su Zhong, Xue Wang and others have to obey.

On October 12, Cheng Min ordered Su Zhong and Xue Wang to lead their men and horses to cross the river and attack the enemy camp.

Su Zhong and Xue Wang had shallow qualifications and did not dare to disobey, knowing that this battle might not be won, they still led 20,000 horses and horses in their headquarters to cross the river and attack the enemy camp.

The Jin army refused to fight, and defended the camp, Su Zhong and Xue Wang rushed to the camp several times, and the soldiers suffered heavy casualties, so they had to retreat to the camp to rest.

Who knew that just as Su Zhong and Xue Wang were retreating, the Jin army brigade suddenly rushed out of the camp and charged with thousands of heavy cavalry.

The retreating Song army was already a little demoralized, and when they heard the neighing of the war horses behind them, the Jin army slaughtered out of the camp, and had no intention of resisting at all, so they withdrew directly to the Song army camp on the other side of the river.

The Song army ran violently and rushed straight to the camp, and the Jin army behind them chased fiercely, especially the thousands of heavy cavalry, soldiers and war horses were all wearing iron armor, and no one dared to block the edge.

And after the thousands of heavy cavalry crossed the river with the Song army, they did not adopt the technique of interspersing and dividing to disperse the Song army's formation, but drove their horses forward, rushed out of the retreating Song army, and went straight to the Song army camp!

Because the thousands of heavy cavalry of the Jin army were all high-grade war horses, the retreating Song army soldiers could not win at all with only two legs, and after a while, they rushed to the front.

So there is a strange picture: the heavy cavalry of the Jin army is charging ahead, the Song army soldiers are chasing behind, and behind the 40,000 Song army, there are countless Jin troops following, cavalry and infantry are intertwined, and the formation is not chaotic at all!

The retreating Song army was competing for time with the heavy cavalry of the Jin army galloping on horseback, and almost everyone knew that once the thousands of heavy cavalry threw off their distance and had time to complete the turn and rearrange their troops, it would be difficult for them to break through the iron wall in front of them and return to the camp.

Although the retreating Song army formation at this time was not in chaos, it was impossible to command again, because they were less than a mile away from the camp, and they could return to the camp in an instant.

Su Zhong and Xue Wang saw that the heavy cavalry of the Jin army rushed to the front of the Song army, as if to guide the Song army to retreat, they were not worried, although they did not know what the intentions of this heavy cavalry were, but as long as they rushed forward and did not retreat to the south or north, they would definitely fall between the 40,000 Song army and the camp, and they would not be able to escape the end of the entire army.

But a moment later, Su Zhong and Xue Wang ushered in the darkest and darkest moment in their lives.

When the heavy cavalry of the Jin army was a hundred feet away from the Song army camp, the Song army camp closed the camp gate!

Subsequently, the heavy cavalry turned their horses' heads, rearranged their formations, divided into dozens of squads, and charged towards the retreating Song army.

Seeing that the camp was a hundred zhang away, where did they have the heart to fight with the Jin army, they avoided the heavy cavalry charging route, and ran desperately towards the camp, completely ignoring the companions around them, no matter whether they were hacked to death by the Jin army, or killed or trampled to death by heavy armored war horses, at this moment they just wanted to return to the camp, and it would be safe to go back.

The retreating Song army camp was quickly separated by dozens of openings by the heavy cavalry of the Jin army, and the original formation no longer existed, after all, the big camp was dozens of zhang away, just rush back to the camp in one go, the enemy is chasing, do you still have to line up to return to the camp?

The retreating Song army put up little resistance, paid the price of thousands of casualties, and after avoiding the onslaught of heavy cavalry, quickly returned to the gate of the main camp.

However, what awaited them was the closed camp gate, and no matter how the Song army called the door, the Song army in the camp refused to pay attention to it.

More and more Song troops retreated in front of the camp gate, and thousands of people were gathered in an instant, and the camp gate was not opened, completely blocking them from the gate.

"Open the door!"

"Open the door!"

"Open the door!"

...........

When the retreating Song soldiers saw that the camp gate was not open, they immediately roared loudly and shouted to open the door.

But there was no response from the camp, and the camp gate was closed and did not move.

"The Jin people are chasing after you, why don't you open the camp gate?" One of the generals raised his gun and roared.

"Your Excellency has an order, repel the enemy army, and then open the camp gate!" After questioning, there was a response from within the battalion.

When the soldiers gathered in front of the camp gate did not want to fight at this moment, they just wanted to return to the camp, and when they heard this, they were immediately furious, and they either slashed the camp gate with their weapons in their hands, or climbed the camp with their bare hands, preparing to climb over.

"Your Excellency has an order, quickly retreat the enemy! Those who dare to destroy the camp will be treated as deserters, and there will be no forgiveness for killing! ”

The Song army in the camp found that the camp gate was attacked, and immediately shouted a warning, and dozens of people shouted in unison, and in front of the noisy camp, there was more than a dozen zhang away.

Where would the soldiers of the Song army who retreated to the camp gate listen, climbed the camp, attacked the camp gate more than once, and shouted "open the door" in their mouths, and the sound shook ten feet.

The Song army formed a confrontation inside and outside the camp gate, and two miles away, the Jin army was pressing over step by step, and the heavy cavalry was divided into dozens of squads to charge wantonly, and the 40,000 troops outside the camp gradually began to be chaotic.

"My lord, the camp gate is closed, and you can't enter the city!"

Su Zhong, who was in the army, heard the news, and his face suddenly changed greatly.

"Why don't you open the camp gates?"

"Shout in the camp, let us retreat from the enemy, the enemy will not retreat, and the camp gate will not be opened!"

"Bastard!"

Su Zhong was furious, in such a situation, how to retreat from the enemy!

"Go and shout quickly, let them open the gates quickly! Otherwise, you will bear the consequences! ”

The school was ordered to go.

In a moment, the outside of the camp was even more chaotic, the whole army had no fighting spirit, no one dared to turn back to block the Jin army's heavy cavalry, as soon as they approached, the Song army was all dodging, and those who couldn't avoid it were killed on the spot.

Seeing that the retreating formation was completely chaotic, Su Zhong was furious.

But the big battalion is in front of you, and the morale of the soldiers has been completely lost, and even if the order is given to turn back and fight, I am afraid that no one will obey it.

In a hurry, Su Zhong had to make other plans.

Just as his brain was spinning, the general suddenly reported: "My lord, the word is spread in the camp, Lord Cheng Min has an order, for the safety of the whole army, the enemy retreats, and the camp gate can be opened!" ”

When Su Zhong heard this, he was speechless with anger.

"My lord, if the camp gate is not opened, the Jin army will chase after it immediately, what should I do?"

Su Zhong suddenly turned his head to look north, and after a moment, he made up his mind.

"Order! The whole army retreated north and retreated to Chengang! ”

The order is issued, and the herald soldiers are ordered to go to the order quickly.

"In addition, inform Lord Xue and let him retreat north together!"

"Yes!"

After a while, the Song army outside the camp saw that there was no hope of returning to the camp, and began to retreat north in panic.