Baoding City, located at the eastern foot of Taihang Mountain, later generations have "the north of the three passes, the south of the nine provinces, the auxiliary of the country, the south of Pinghan" said, more with Beiping, Zhending has the name of "Hebei Sanxiong Town", but relative to Beiping, Zhending, the origin of Baoding is much later. Before the Song Dynasty, Baoding was inconspicuous, but because the Khitan occupied the sixteen states of Youyun, the dividing line between the nomadic people and the farming people in the traditional sense moved from the Great Wall, and moved from Datong in Shanxi to the Yanmen Pass, Ningwu Pass and Yatou Pass in the north of Taiyuan, and in Hebei it moved to Baoding, Xiongzhou (Xiongxian), Bazhou, Tianjin, Tanggu line, so the position of Baoding was immediately important, the Song Dynasty placed the Baosai army and Baozhou in this place, and took the meaning of defending the border fortress, but until the third year of Chunhua (Song Taizong period), When Li Jixuan was appointed as the prefect of Baozhou, Baozhou City initially had the scale of a city.

When Mongolia destroyed Jin, burned down Baozhou City, Zhang Rou rebuilt Baozhou City at the beginning of the Yuan Dynasty, and when Kublai Khan set the capital in Beijing, Baozhou was given the name Baoding, becoming the gateway of Kyoto, "the first capital of Yannan". But the Ming Dynasty set the capital of Nanjing, Beiping was the first line of resistance to the Yuan, and the city of Baoding slowly declined, but Baoding, as the gateway of Beiping, was very important in today's rebellion of Zhu Di.

Meng Shan, the defender of Baoding, is fifty-four years old this year, and at the end of the Yuan Dynasty and the beginning of the Ming Dynasty, he was the same member of the Shandong Privy Council, and the Ming army descended to the Ming when it went north. However, the official position is not high, starting from Dingyuan 100 households, Hongwu Mo did to protect 1,000 households in Yanshan. When Zhu Di raised his army, he followed without thinking about anything, not that he thought that King Yan would succeed, nor that he was disloyal to the emperor, but that he was in the game, and if he did not surrender, he would die. Meng Shan, who was a handful of years, wanted to live for two more years, but in the middle of ten months, King Yan had 200,000 troops, which couldn't help but make him sigh that he had a unique vision. When King Yan reorganized his soldiers and horses, he transferred back Chen Xuan and transferred him to defend Baoding, with a number of 10,000 soldiers.

Baoding City is three zhang high, the circumference is twelve miles and three hundred and thirty steps, it is a male city. It's just that there are not enough troops in the city, and not all of them are elite, but in Meng Shan's opinion, there will be no problem in guarding for ten days and a half months, and such a long time should be enough for King Yan to support. In the view of Meng Shan, who has been Rong Ma all his life, King Yan is invincible in the field, as long as King Yan arrives, the armies under the city will be broken soon.

At this time, Ping'an was taking Wu Jie, Song Xuan and others to discuss countermeasures, Ping'an first said: "General Wu, our army has now arrived under Baoding City, with General Qu Neng's interception, the rebels will take at least five or six days to arrive, can we capture Baoding City during this time?" ”

Wu Jie looked at the map of Baoding City, pondered for a while and said: "It's difficult, Baoding City is three zhang high, twelve miles in circumference, three zhang wide in the east, west and north moats, and five zhang wide in the south moat. If you want to attack the city, you must first drain the moat, although its water source comes from an acre of spring water, you can reroute the water source, it takes time to divert the water, and it also takes time to drain the water, plus the siege of the city, I am afraid that the end will not have enough time. ”

Ping An nodded, looked at Song Xuan and said, "What about General Song?" ”

Song Xuan thought for a while and said: "My opinion is the same as General Wu, it is not difficult to break the city, our army still has a large number of firearms and tiger squat artillery, but it will take time, according to the estimate of the last general, it will take at least two days for the water source to be diverted, and it will take two days for the moat to drain the water, plus the time of the siege, I am afraid it will take at least ten days." But I'm afraid the rebels won't give us so much time. ”

"When I went to Beiping with the general to harass, the rebels only took four days to rush from Zhending to Beiping, and now Lixian is one day away from Baoding Kuaima, but the rebels have to cross the Tang River, plus General Qu's raid, the speed will be slower, but we can't have ten days."

"Once our army is attacking the city and the rebels attack from behind, it will be troublesome, so the last general thinks that he should not risk attacking the city."

Ping An thought about it for a while, and said with a smile: "Okay, then don't attack the city for the time being, but you have to scare them, so let's let the engineer troops formed by the emperor dig a canal and divert an acre of spring water, and then send an artillery battalion to the city every once in a while to cannon them to scare them, make them sleepless, and save us from coming out to make trouble when we fight the rebels." In addition, General Song arranged for people to protect the sappers and artillery. ”

"Yes, General."

After Zhu Di learned that he went to Baoding safely, he was also a little anxious, and he said to Zhang Yu, who had just returned: "Baoding is the gateway to Beiping, you must not save it, but how to save it, can Shimei teach me?" ”

Zhang Yu looked at the map, thought for a while, and said: "The prince doesn't have to be anxious, the Tang River is turbulent, and Qu Neng patrols on the opposite side, it is not easy to swim across, to cross the Tang River, one is from the pontoon bridge next to Dingzhou, and the other is the Yuexiang Bridge near Xiongxian." ”

"The last general thought that most of our army went west, crossed the river from Dingzhou, attracted Qu Neng to come and intercept, and at the same time ordered an elite to cross the Yuexiang Bridge in Xiongxian County to the east, detour back to Qu Neng's back, attack on both sides, kill Qu Neng, and then the army crossed the river from Dingzhou to the north, and went straight to the back of Ping'an, so that it only takes about four days to reach Baoding, if Ping'an is the best in attacking the city, our army can attack from behind; If not, then our army can also fight a decisive battle under Baoding City with Ping'an. ”

Zhu Di thought for a while and said, "Shimei, this plan is very good, but it is not satisfactory enough. In this way, Shimei, you take 5,000 cavalry to cross the moon-like bridge, this king leads 5,000 cavalry to cross the river from the upper Tang County, and Shihong leads the army to cross the river from Dingxian to attract Qu Neng's attention, and then cross the river when this king and Shimei defeat Qu Neng. ”

"Yes, the prince is wise!"

The Tang River is more than 30 zhang narrow, more than 100 zhang wide, the water flow is turbulent, and it is now winter, the water is with ice ballast, which is not suitable for swimming, but Qu Neng still does not dare to be careless. He only had 10,000 cavalry in his hands, but the king of Yan on the opposite side had an army of 100,000, so he was very careful and paid close attention to the movements on the other side.

That night, the Yan army camped on the south bank of the Tang River, but Qu Neng camped five miles away from the north bank, mainly because he was worried about the Yan army's sneak attack, leaving a time to react.

The next morning, the Yan army pulled out the camp and headed west, and Qu Neng understood the Yan army's plan to cross the river from the pontoon bridge next to Dingzhou. Qu Neng immediately ordered the deputy general Lü Fang to take 5,000 cavalry to the Dingzhou ferry, and Lü Fang took the order and left. Looking at Lu Fang's back, Qu Neng was not worried, because there were defenders left in Dingzhou, and it was impossible for the Yan army to break through at once, it must be in time.

But did Yan Jun stop there? Qu Neng continued to observe Yan Jun, although he didn't find anything abnormal, but he instinctively felt uneasy, he looked in the direction of Lu Fang, but suddenly had an idea, and looked back at the direction of Xiongxian, since Yan Jun was feint to the west, wouldn't it be feint to the east? Thinking of this, Qu Neng immediately ordered to send scouts to the Xiongxian defense line to find out if there was a Yan army there; After the scout was dispatched, Qu Neng called his son Qu Tao, whispered a few words to him, and then beat his horse and headed west.

After the Yan army on the other side found out about Qu Neng's movements, he flew to report to Zhu Neng, and after Zhu Neng listened, he nodded, and then waved his hand to let him retreat and continue to monitor.

Zhang Yu and Zhu Di's cavalry were dispatched last night, so they went to Tang County and Yuexiang Bridge respectively the next morning. After Zhang Yu crossed the Yuexiang Bridge, he immediately ordered the whole army to enter Xiongxian to rest. Zhang Yu was meticulous and ordered the scouts to reconnoiter westward, but ordered them to return as soon as they found Qu Neng's scouts, and not to fight.

At noon that day, Qu Neng's scout cavalry was attracted by Zhang Yu's cavalry and chased them to the Yuexiang Bridge, but they were surrounded by Zhang Yu, who had been prepared, and most of them were killed in battle, and a small number were captured alive. After Zhang Yu interrogated the situation, he ordered the cavalry to rest until dark before setting off, and secretly headed west, intending to attack Qu Neng.

At the same time, Zhu Di had also bypassed the pontoon bridge in Tang County and secretly went east.