On the twenty-ninth day of the twelfth year of the Northern Order, the day before Chinese New Year's Eve, the Northern Expeditionary Army of the Great Song Dynasty finally cleaned up Yanjing City.

After the cleanup, there was no one else in the entire Yanjing City except for the soldiers of the Northern Expeditionary Army of the Great Song Dynasty, no prisoners, and no civilians.

On Chinese New Year's Eve, the Great Song Emperor Zhao Yan, who came to the land of Youyan in person, took the civil and military hundred officials and all the middle and senior generals of the Northern Expedition Army to worship the sky on the high platform of the southern camp outside the city, and reported the good news to Taizu, Emperor Taizong and the previous emperors, informing the ancestors that the Great Song Dynasty had recovered Youyan and would recover Yunzhong within three years, so as to complete the century-old wish of recovering the sixteen states of Yanyun!

After worshipping the sky, Zhao Yan led hundreds of civil and military officials and senior generals of the Northern Expeditionary Army from the south gate to slowly enter Yanjing City.

A banquet was held that night, and the monarchs and ministers congratulated each other, which was very lively.

On the second day, that is, on the first day of the Lunar New Year, Zhao Yan suddenly announced in public that he would be rewarded, and Yang Congyi, the commander of the Northern Expedition, would be the king of Yan, and 25,000 households would be sealed by Youyan, and the official Taibao would be added!

As soon as Zhao Yan's words came out, all the civil and military officials were shocked.

Without waiting for others to object, Yang Congyi was the first to stand up and resign, and expressed his opposition and resolutely refused to accept it.

Yang Congyi objected, and the hundred officials immediately agreed, saying that this matter still needs to be considered, even if it is to be rewarded, it should be rewarded after returning to Bianjing, this place is barren and simple, and it is difficult to have a solemn ceremony in a hurry.

Zhao Yan seemed to have made up his mind, and rejected the ministers one by one, saying that Yang Cong's righteous achievements were world-famous and he must be rewarded.

Yang Congyi resolutely refused, and even threatened to resign, and his emotions were extremely excited.

As a result, he was in a hurry, the old injury recurred, and in front of the civil and military officials and Zhao Yan, he fell on top of the court.

Yang Congyi fell down and was sent out for treatment, and the controversy about his reward cooled down.

Yang Congyi is over 50 years old, he was injured a lot in his early years, and he has not fully recovered, and he has not had much time to recuperate in the past few decades.

It's just that no one could have expected that Yang Congyi fell ill and didn't get better for half a month, and the accompanying imperial doctor diagnosed and treated the medicine every day, but he didn't get better, and he was at a loss.

Although Yanjing City has been captured, most of the land in the Youyan area has been recovered, but the battle of the Northern Expedition has not ended, the Northern Expeditionary Army and the Jin Army are still fighting in the direction of Laizhou and Jinzhou, and the Jin Army is still fighting in the mountains north of Yanjing and on the grassland outside the Guan, and it is still eyeing Yanjing, while the Northern Expeditionary Army is unable to continue to attack the mountains in the north in the ice and snow.

The Northern Expeditionary Army still has a lot of tasks to complete, and there are still many prefectures and counties in the mountains around Youyan, if these places are not recovered and in the hands of the Great Song Dynasty, the Jin army will be able to kill Youyan from the grassland to Youyan in Pingchuan at any time.

Therefore, when Yang Congyi fell ill for half a month and still did not get better, Zhao Yan decided to appoint Zhang Song, the commander of the palace front division, to temporarily act as the generalissimo of the Northern Expeditionary Army to control the 200,000 Northern Expeditionary Army in the Yanjing area.

On the twentieth day of the first month, Zhao Yan decided to change the year name to Beixing, and the edict was sent from the camp in Yanjing City and passed all the way to the south.

On the 23rd of the same month, Zhang Song, the commander of the palace commander of the generalissimo of the Northern Expeditionary Army, suggested to Zhao Yan that the imperial court should immediately take advantage of the victory to recover Zhending Mansion and annihilate the Jin army entrenched in the area of Zhending Mansion.

The high-spirited Zhao Yan accepted the suggestion of Zhang Song, the commander of the front division of the palace, and ordered him to command 100,000 troops and take Zhending Mansion within a month.

Yang Congyi, who heard the news while lying ill, immediately asked someone to bring a message to Zhao Yan, telling him not to send troops to attack Zhending Mansion at this time, and to persuade the elite of the 70,000 Jin army to surrender according to the plan made earlier.

However, Zhao Yan did not follow Yang Congyi's advice, but just brought a message to let him recuperate.

Two days later, on the twenty-fifth day of the first lunar month, the palace commander commanded Zhang Song to personally lead the 100,000 Northern Expeditionary Army of Xiying, Nanying, and Dongying to set off from Yanjing and go south to Zhending Mansion through Zhuozhou.

The road to the south of the Northern Expedition army is very smooth, on the third day of the second month, the soldiers occupy Baozhou without bloodshed, this place is less than 300 miles away from Zhending Mansion, if it goes well, the army can reach the city of Zhending Mansion after six days.

However, just when Zhang Song thought that the Jin army should hide in Zhending Mansion and did not dare to fight, the negligent Northern Expeditionary Army was ambushed by the Jin cavalry near Yangcheng, forty miles south of Baozhou.

In a scuffle, the Northern Expeditionary Army lost nearly 10,000 soldiers, but in the end, it could only watch the cavalry of the Jin Army retreat smoothly.

If this defeat did not hurt the morale of the Northern Expeditionary Army very much, then two days later, it was ambushed again in Wangdu County, and nearly 10,000 soldiers were lost, and the blow to the morale of the Northern Expeditionary Army had to be taken seriously.

However, Zhang Song did not see it that way, he believed that the reason why the Jin army adopted the strategy of sneak attack and ambush, rather than facing it head-on, was precisely because the Jin army's morale was not high and the combat confidence was low, and the Northern Expeditionary Army should speed up the march and directly attack Zhendingfu to force the other side to engage head-on.

The senior generals in the army raised objections one after another, saying that they should fight steadily and steadily, advance step by step, and cooperate with the 100,000 elites of the Great Song Dynasty stationed in the direction of the Daimyo's Mansion to attack from both sides.

However, Zhang Song rejected the suggestions of the generals, insisted on a quick decision, and went straight to Zhending Mansion.

The generals were helpless, although they were dissatisfied, but they had no choice but to obey orders.

On the eighth day of February, more than 80,000 Northern Expeditionary Army encountered an ambush and sneak attack by the Jin Army near the Shahe River in Gaopeng Town, south of Dingzhou, and after a big battle, the Northern Expeditionary Army lost more than 10,000 soldiers.

Soldiers fled the camp that night.

For the next two days, the soldiers fled uncontrollably.

In just two days, more than 20,000 soldiers disappeared without a trace, and the entire 100,000 army that set out from Yanjing City lost half of its troops before it reached the city of Zhending Mansion.

The battle was no longer fought, and the generals and officers of all armies collectively opposed it and resolutely did not continue to advance.

Although Zhang Song is the generalissimo of the Northern Expeditionary Army, he is only temporary, and he does not have much prestige in the Northern Expeditionary Army.

Serving as a soldier is to eat and be promoted, not to die, Zhang Song buried the lives of 30,000 soldiers in a few days, and it is better to go home and farm with such a commander and commander.

The soldiers of the Northern Expeditionary Army did not obey the order, and Zhang Song had no choice, he wanted to find a few typical beheadings to show the public, in order to show the military authority, but was opposed by almost all the generals, and in the end his order could not be conveyed at all.

In desperation, Zhang Song could only compromise, follow the advice of the vast majority of generals, and lead 50,000 remnants of the army back to Dingzhou to build a city to defend.

At the same time, the military information was delivered in the direction of Yanjing, and the imperial court was requested to send reinforcements.

The military intelligence was sent back to Yanjing, and when he learned that he had lost 50,000 soldiers in just ten days, Zhao Yan quickly calmed down after being angry.

Although Zhang Song is loyal, can defend the capital and lead the guards, he is not suitable for leading troops to fight, because he does not have this ability at all, and he does not have much experience in real battles, and this defeat is also reasonable.

If you want to blame, blame Zhao Yan for his nepotism and unknown appointment.

How to recover the defeat is the top priority, whether to continue to attack Zhending Mansion or return to Yanjing, this is a question, how to decide, Zhao Yan couldn't make up his mind for a while.

At the same time, he also understood that in such a matter as fighting, it was useless to consult with civilian officials, and they would not be of much use except to add to the chaos, because it was not they who would eventually go to the battlefield and fight to the death with the Jin army.

Yang Congyi couldn't afford to be sick, said that he couldn't get sick, and no longer paid attention to the affairs of the Northern Expeditionary Army, and Zhao Yan had a lot of thoughts about him.

Originally, I didn't want to consult him for the Northern Expedition, nor did I want to follow his advice, but the battle situation ahead was not smooth, and I didn't know who to use at the moment, so Zhao Yan had to visit Yang Congyi who was sick.

When he arrived at the mansion where Yang Congyi temporarily lived, he personally came to his hospital bed to visit his condition, Zhao Yan chatted with him for a while, but he couldn't help but not mention the failure of the attack on Zhending Mansion.

I didn't want Yang Congyi to mention it first, saying that although his old injuries had recurred and he was bedridden, he was still very concerned about the battle situation in Zhendingfu, and once again suggested not to use force to forcibly capture Zhendingfu, and by the way, he inquired about the recent battle situation.

Zhao Yan got off the donkey and told Yang Congyi that the 100,000 Northern Expeditionary Army attacked Zhending Mansion very unsmoothly, Zhang Song did not have the experience of leading troops to fight, and did not have the ability to fight in the field.

Yang Congyi was silent for a long time, and then said that since he had already used force, there was no reason to retreat, and when he arrived in Dingzhou, he would stay in Dingzhou, and he should gradually compress the activity space of the Jin army in Zhendingfu to fight a forced landing, and it would not take more than a year for the sixty or seventy thousand Jin troops trapped in the square inch to surrender.

Zhao Yan agreed with Yang Congyi's suggestion, and then said that Zhang Song was not suitable to lead the Northern Expeditionary Army, and planned to let him come back to continue to be in charge of the palace front division and the Su Guard, and asked Yang Congyi who could take over the Northern Expeditionary Army.

To be honest, Yang Congyi had already considered this question a long time ago, and now that Zhao Yan asked, it was not good for him to answer in a hurry.

After thinking about it for a long time, Yang Congyi told Zhao Yan that the Northern Expeditionary Army had a lot of troops, and it was not suitable for the imperial court to let anyone be in charge, and it was difficult to convince the public in the army, so it was suggested that the Northern Expeditionary Army north of Hejian Province should be divided into three divisions, each responsible for a battlefield.

Nanying and Dongying took Ming Fu as the marshal, and cooperated with the Daimyo Mansion to fight against the Zhending Mansion to the south. The first part of the North Camp and the West Camp had Yao Chang as the marshal and fought against the west and north of Yanjing. The Xiying No. 1, Pingzhou, and Laizhou Northern Expeditionary Armies took Luo Cong as the marshal to fight against Jinzhou, Xingzhongfu, and Dadingfu, and if the time was right, they could also attack Liaoyang Mansion with the Great Song Dynasty Naval Army from east to west.

Yang Congyi put together what he thought in his heart, as for whether Zhao Yan would agree, it was not a matter for him to consider.

Zhao Yan did not immediately take a stand after hearing this, did not agree, and did not raise objections.

The two chatted for a while, and then Zhao Yan instructed Yang Congyi to recuperate well and strive for an early recovery before getting up and leaving.

That night, Zhao Yan thought for a long time about the three candidates and the three theaters given by Yang Congyi, and then found Xin Qiji, who had participated in the battle to recover Hedong, and asked him about Yang Congyi's suggestions.

Xin Qijian agreed after thinking about it, he said that the three theaters mentioned by Lord Yang are very complicated, and it is best to separate them, if they are united, I am afraid that it will be difficult to take care of the three theaters, and as for the candidates for the marshal of the three theaters, he also thinks it is more appropriate. First of all, they are all high-ranking generals who can fight well, and have the ability to lead an army to win battles. Secondly, the three of them have made great contributions in the Northern Expedition, and now that they have won Yanjing City, they should be promoted and reused in time to avoid chilling the soldiers.

Two days later, Zhao Yan issued an edict appointing Ming Fu as the marshal of the southern theater of Yanjing, commanding 70,000 troops to fight against Zhendingfu, appointing Yao Chang as the marshal of the western and northern theaters of Yanjing, commanding 60,000 troops to fight in the west and north, and appointing Luo Cong as the marshal of the eastern Yanjing theater, commanding 50,000 troops to fight against Jinzhou, Xingzhongfu and Dadingfu in the east.

At the same time, he ordered Zhang Song to be recalled and relieved of his post as generalissimo of the Northern Expedition.

The battle situation in the Youyan region has entered a new stage since then, but it has little direct relationship with Yang Congyi.