Jixian County, Youzhou.

Seeing that the New Year is approaching, there is no news from Yingzhou, Zhao Junsheng is a little anxious, his one-year-old son Zhao Dong misses his mother, and he cries at night, and he has to be coaxed by Zhao Junsheng himself to fall asleep, and no one else can do it, this is miserable Zhao Junsheng, both a father and a mother, this is not easy to give birth to a child, and he is worried about the child when he has a little headache and brain fever.

That night, Zhao Junsheng had just coaxed the child to sleep, and he was also trying to rest early, when a voice came from outside the door: "Lord Wang, a messenger sent by Yingzhou is waiting in the lobby, will the prince see it or not?" ”

Zhao Junsheng motioned to a family member to open the door, and said to the official on duty standing outside the door: "Take the messenger to the inner hall to rest, get him some wine and food, and this king will go over in a while!" ”

"Yes, Lord Wang!"

Zhao Junsheng saw that his son Zhao Dong was asleep, so he got up and took the cloak from the family and draped it over his shoulders and walked towards the inner hall.

The brazier was burning in the inner hall, it was warm, and the messenger was just full of wine and food, and Zhao Junsheng came.

"The villain visits the prince, and the lady sends the villain back to deliver a letter to the prince!" The messenger stood up, took a letter from his bosom, and presented it with both hands.

An attendant next to him took the letter and turned around and handed it to Zhao Junsheng.

Zhao Junsheng took the letter and opened it and read it carefully, Hua Mulan roughly described the process of attacking the Kumo Xi people in the letter, and captured the leader of the Kumo Xi Alliance, Yu Chukuzhen, and dozens of his subordinates, she also said in the letter that the Kumo Xi people were all enemy soldiers from the septuagenarians to the children of a few years old, and almost all the people were soldiers, and the soldiers of the Youzhou Army had no choice but to exterminate them all.

Now the army is resting on the south bank of the confluence of the lower reaches of Huangshui and Wuhou Qinshui, and the dry food brought with it can be eaten for more than a month, and the grain, grass and livestock that were plundered by the Kumoxi people after breaking through Fancheng and Pinggang City were captured, and these grain, grass and livestock were enough for the army to eat for more than two months. In addition, the loss of the ordnance soldier's bow and crossbow arrows is not large, and it is enough to support several battles.

Therefore, Hua Mulan said in the letter that the General's Mansion does not need to send someone to transport the baggage for the time being, and it is not too late to wait until after the spring of next year to transport the baggage.

Hua Mulan also said in the letter that she had sent someone to escort the leader of the Kumoxi Alliance, Yu Chukuzhen, and dozens of his men who had been captured back to Jixian County, and she had also decided to let the army rest for a few days at the confluence of the two rivers before advancing east to attack the Khitan.

She has already sent someone to find out, the Khitan people are divided into eight tribes, including the Xiwandan Division, the He Dahe Division, the Fufuyu Division, the Yuling Division, the Rilian Division, the Pi Xuan Division, the Li Division, and the Tuliuyu Division, with a total population of more than 30,000 people, slightly more than 10,000 more than Kumo Xi.

The Khitan people are savage, fearless of death, living in the deep mountains and old forests all the year round, and have adapted to and are familiar with the treacherous and cold environment between the white waters of Montenegro.

The Khitans are a half-farming and half-pastoral people, they are no strangers to horseback riding, and every Khitan warrior is good at riding and shooting.

Just after the first month of 435 AD, Hua Mulan sent a letter to Zhao Junsheng again, and also sent a battle report in accordance with the rules, in which she described in detail the process of attacking the Khitan during this time.

The army of Zhengdong advanced eastward along the south bank of the West Liao River from the confluence of Huangshui and Wuhou Qinshui, while Gao Xu, the general of Yingzhou and the envoy of Longcheng, led more than 10,000 people of Yingzhou army to set off from Yinlongcheng in the northeast of Longcheng.

The area where the Khitan people live is much wider than the Song Desert area where the Kumoxi people live, and they stretch from the north of Yinlong County in the south, north to the north of the Xiliao River, bordering the hometown of Kumoxi in the west, and reaching both sides of the middle section of the Daliao River in the east.

In such a vast and wild land, there are less than 30,000 Khitans, and this population density is very small.

The Khitan people have learned the news that Zhao Junsheng sent a large army to conquer and suppress, and also received the news that the Kumo Xi people were exterminated.

Hua Mulan had no other way but to use the method of dragnet sweeping, searching every mountain and the bank of every river, and destroying all the houses and farmland left by the Khitans.

But this method was only implemented for about ten days before it had to be terminated, because it was too time-consuming and labor-intensive, and the pressure on logistics also increased greatly, and Mulan had to order the cancellation of this method.

At the suggestion of Cui Hao and Guo Sheng, Hua Mulan adopted the method of building forts and cities at key transportation locations, completely blocking the Khitans who were hiding in certain areas, so that they could not leave and go elsewhere.

When more than a dozen forts, passes and small cities were built, the Khitans finally couldn't hold it anymore and were forced to come out and surrender, and if they didn't surrender, they would starve to death and freeze to death in the deep mountains and old forests.

At the beginning of March 435 AD, when Zhao Junsheng received the battle report from Mulan's others, Mulan had already pacified the Khitan, and the Khitans chose to surrender.

In the letter, Mulan asked how to deal with those Khitans, and Zhao Junsheng sent a letter to Hua Mulan after some discussion with Dongfang Chen, Kou Qianzhi, Gao Yun and other strategists, and scattered and resettled the eight Khitan tribes, one to the Korean Peninsula, one to Liaodong, one to Liaoxi, and one to Youbeiping, and the remaining four to Yuyang, Shanggu, Fanyang and Dingzhou.

After the Khitan people were moved, the area around the Liao River valley became a vacuum of power, Zhao Junsheng of course could not abandon that rich land, he ordered from Youzhou, Jizhou, Dingzhou and Yingzhou to move a part of the people to settle down in the Liao River Valley, give them land, and build eight cities in the Liao River Valley, in this way to completely occupy this land, no longer give the northern Douyu and Murowei the opportunity to take advantage of the void.

When the Khitan tribes were migrated, and people were dispatched from various states to the Daliao River valley to pioneer and reclaim the border, Hua Mulan had already stationed troops on the east bank of the Daliao River, and while letting the soldiers rest, she sent a small envoy to investigate the situation of the Beji people.

Zhao Junsheng was in charge of the overall situation in Youzhou, and spent part of his energy busy with the migration of people, and at the same time had to deal with both the court of Pingcheng and the princes in the south.

"Lord Wang, I just got a secret report that Liu Xun, who killed his father and usurped the throne in the Southern Dynasty, was defeated by the coalition of kings of the Southern Dynasty, Liu Xun died in the chaos, and Liu Yikang, the new emperor of the Southern Dynasty, ascended the throne."

Liu Xun's death did not surprise Zhao Junsheng, this person killed his father and usurped the throne, he was unpopular with the people, and he was not supported by the local officials and generals of the army, and it was a matter of time before he was destroyed, but what surprised him was that it was Liu Yikang who ascended the throne as emperor.

Liu Yikang is not a fuel-efficient lamp, this person has endured for many years, has been suppressed by Liu Yilong, and now Liu Yilong was killed by his son Liu Xun, he naturally felt that the opportunity had come, and was the first to raise troops to crusade against Liu Xun, so he had outstanding prestige, and was proclaimed emperor after killing Liu Xun.

Zhao Junsheng felt that this matter was not trivial, and immediately sent people to convene some strategists and officials such as Dongfang Chen, Kou Qianzhi, Gao Yun, Pei Jin, and Liang Lian to discuss the impact of this matter on the forces in the north.

In the lobby, the strategists and officials knelt on both sides, Zhao Junsheng sat on the main seat, and under his signal, Peng Lifan, the general's mansion, stood up and told the strategists and officials about the change of the throne of the Southern Dynasty.

Li Fan is a native of Fan Yang Zhuolu, quite talented and capable of doing things, and his father Li Song served as the Taishou of Tianshui.

Gao Yun was the first to stand up and say: "Lord, the minister thinks that the change of the throne in the Southern Dynasty should not have much impact on the north in a short period of time, Liu Yikang wants to stabilize the throne and power, there must be a period of time to integrate domestic forces, I think it took Liu Yilong several years to eradicate the ministers and control the power, Liu Yikang will not be much smarter than Liu Yilong, the minister thinks that the Southern Dynasty needs two to three years to calm down the civil strife and stabilize the situation!" ”

Gao Yun's analysis was well-founded and reasonable, and the other officials and strategists present could not find anything to refute.

However, only two months later, Gao Yun was slapped in the face, and Liu Yikang, the new emperor of the Southern Dynasty, in order to divert domestic contradictions, sent troops to Karasuma to the north to attack Qingxu and Xuzhou.

Xuzhou barely resisted for half a month before it was lost, and the whole territory was captured by the army of the Southern Dynasties, and then Yanzhou and Qingzhou were also lost one after another.

But soon the army of the Southern Dynasty was blocked in Qizhou, and the defender of Qizhou was Sima Chuzhi, who was greatly appreciated by Emperor Taiwu Tuoba Tao, and tens of thousands of soldiers and horses of the Southern Dynasty led by Tan Daoji were blocked by Sima Chuzhi in the south of Qizhou, and the offensive of the Southern Dynasty army came to a standstill.

After the news reached Jiankang, some people said to Liu Yikang that they were afraid that it was not that Tan Daoji could not resist Sima Chuzhi, but that Tan Daoji was raising thieves for self-respect, or secretly colluding with Sima Chuzhi and taking care of each other in order to gain greater power, territory and troops.

After hearing this, Liu Yikang secretly hated in his heart, but he couldn't do anything to Tan Daoji for the time being, so he could only endure it and send his henchmen to lead troops to support Tan Daoji, on the one hand, to add military strength to the Northern Expedition, and on the other hand, to monitor Tan Daoji.

Until mid-June, Hua Mulan defeated the Sumo and Baishan tribes of the Beji people in the northeast, and Sima Chuzhi still relied on Qizhou City to block the siege of Tan Daoji's 80,000 army.

Tan Daoji saw that he could not capture Qizhou for a long time, and wasted grain and grass in vain, so he led the army back to Qingzhou and attacked Gwangju with a partial division.

In late July, Hua Mulan led the army back to Youzhou, and the battle to pacify the northeastern barbarians lasted eight months, completely solving the incursions of the Kumoxi, Khitan, and Beji southern regions on Yingzhou and Andong Prefecture.

Zhao Junsheng ordered a reward for the army that returned to Jixian County, not only rewarding money and grain, but also ordering the army to kill cattle and sheep to give food to the soldiers of the Eastern Army for several days.

His son Zhao Dong saw that Mulan was a little recognized, and he didn't like to be with Mulan much for two or three days, and Mulan was very sad, and it took several days to accompany her son to get closer to him.

That night, after Mulan put her son to sleep, Zhao Junsheng came back from outside and couldn't help asking, "Why is it so late today?" ”

Zhao Junsheng picked up the teapot and poured a glass of water before saying: "Qizhou Thorn Shi Sima Chuzhi sent someone to ask for help, I discussed with Dongfang Chen, Cui Hao and a few of them for an afternoon without any result, so I simply ate dinner and continued, so I didn't come back until now!" ”

Mulan wondered; "Didn't the army of the Southern Dynasties withdraw? Sima Chuzhi still asks for help? ”