The arrival of Fang Zhao and Li Yuan was not accidental, at the beginning of the siege, Ping'an ordered the two to leave the Bauhinia Pass, hide in the mountains north of Baoding, wait for an opportunity to seize the city, and strictly ordered the two not to expose their whereabouts. After receiving the order, the two secretly went out of the Bauhinia Pass and secretly came to the vicinity of Baoding to observe the situation.

When they arrived, it was already February 7, and the siege had reached the final stage, when Ping'an got the news that the two were in place, he resolutely decided to fight with Zhu Di, but Zhu Di's cunning was still unexpected by Ping'an, and he quietly hid 10,000 cavalry in the city, and the sudden appearance of 10,000 cavalry almost laid Zhu Di's victory. Although Ping An was a bad move, he didn't expect the hidden cavalry, but when the cavalry appeared, he decided to give it a go. Because Fang and Li don't go out again, I'm afraid it's a little late to collect their bodies. So he immediately sent a signal to the big camp Chaofang and Li.

Everything was as choreographed, Li Jun led the only remaining soldiers in the city to attack out of the city in a desperate way, and when everyone's attention was focused on the south, Fang and Li easily landed in the city and killed the stubborn Meng Shan. Although the actions of the two were not silent, the sound of killing on the battlefield was shocking, and no one had the heart to pay attention to the few screams at the head of the city.

At the most critical time, Li Yuan led all the 5,000 cavalry to attack Zhu Di's flank, and the Ulzhou army, which had been recuperating for a long time, easily defeated the Yan army, and the subsequent pursuit was mainly carried out by the Ulzhou army. But in the end, it was Song Xuan who was injured, he was shot and wounded by the cavalry brought by Zhu Gaoxu, and Li Yuan desperately snatched it back and returned to Baoding City.

When Li Yuan and others returned, the city of Baoding was still a mess, the ground was stained red with blood, the battlefield was full of corpses, screams, moans were endless, the surviving soldiers were nervously running around, rescuing their own wounded, because the battlefield was muddy, from time to time there were soldiers who fell down and got up again. Li Yuan looked at this bloody battlefield, couldn't help sighing, ordered the cavalry to be on guard, and then went to find Ping An to give orders. When Li Yuan found peace, he found that the young general Zuo was full of tiredness, and when he heard that Zhu Di had escaped, he only nodded and said that he knew, and then ordered Li Yuan to send cavalry to patrol the surroundings to prevent the Yan army from coming again, and Li Yuan took the order and left.

The ups and downs on the battlefield, the peaks and turns, made all the soldiers participating in the battle tired, even if they were safe, only the soldiers brought by Fang Zhao and Li Yuan were much better, so they took on the task of vigilance. Ping An handed over the task of defending the camp outside the city to Li Yuan, and the task of defending Baoding City to Fang Zhao.

When it got dark, Ping An just reluctantly sorted out the wounded and sent them to the camp or city to recuperate, and the corpses, armor and the like were completely ignored, but fortunately, the weather was cold, and the corpses would not rot after a few days. Ping An himself was busy visiting the injured Qu Neng, Song Xuan and other senior generals, and by the way, he also took a look at the injured sergeant and reassured the sergeant, so that they did not have to worry, the reward of the imperial court would come down soon.

When he returned to the big tent safely, it was already late at night, and the marching commander Shi Gaowei was counting the results with some attachés. After seeing Ping An come in, Gao Wei waved the booklet in his hand and said happily: "General Zuo, our army has won a great victory, after this battle, the rebels are not worried." ”

Ping An smiled bitterly, leaned back in his chair and said: "Although our army won, it is very lucky, and the battle damage is far above the rebels, I don't know what the emperor will think?" ”

General Zuo was too worried, and the emperor offered a princely reward for counterinsurgency, which shows the importance he attaches to the rebels. When the lower officials went out of Beijing, the emperor taught the lower officials Yin Yin that they must not underestimate the rebels. ”

"And our cavalry is only half of the rebels, and it is very good to have this kind of result in foot. The emperor will inevitably reward the general heavily, and this time I am afraid that the general will be crowned a marquis. ”

Hearing Gao Wei's words, Ping'an's eyes lit up, and he arched his hand and said, "Then borrow more auspicious words from Lord Changshi." ”

This night, the surviving counterinsurgency army finally slept peacefully, and no longer had to worry about Chen Xuan's stealing camp, nor did they have to worry about Zhu Di's raid in Xiongxian County.

But early the next morning, Li Yuan came to report that Zhu Di did not leave, but was stationed near Xiongxian and Rong County, and his son Zhu Gaoxu's cavalry was wandering around Baoding, and Li Yuan had insufficient cavalry in his hands and asked for support.

Ping'an was shocked when he heard this, he didn't expect Zhu Di, who had experienced such a big loss, to not give up, he immediately ordered all the cavalry to be handed over to Li Yuan to protect the safety of Baoding City, but not to pursue Zhu Di in depth, in case of ambush.

The progress of counting the results of the battle was very slow, there were too many people killed in the battle, and the elite troops had to defend Zhu Di, so it was not until the third day, after repeated confirmation, that the battle report was summarized, signed by Ping An and others, and sent to the capital. In order to avoid the rebels' interception, Ping'an sent three groups of messengers to return to the Beijing division from Tang County and Zhending, but in the end, only one group arrived in the Beijing division, and the other two groups were robbed and killed by the rebels.

After the messenger set off, Ping'an immediately reorganized the army, and now there are only more than 10,000 cavalry, more than 40,000 infantry and more than 10,000 wounded soldiers under his command. However, Ping'an did not dismantle the camp outside the city, and ordered Fang Zhao to guard the camp, and at the same time moved the moat back, and stationed himself in the city, waiting for reinforcements from the imperial court.

After staying in Xiongxian for a few days, Zhu Di returned to Beiping, and wrote a letter to Ping'an before leaving, praising Ping'an's outstanding art of war and extraordinary ability, and the words were full of feelings of heroes and heroes; In particular, he recalled the years when he fought together, and at the end of the sentence, he said that Sheng Yong attacked Tongzhou, but he quickly withdrew, and his son Zhu Gaoxu had the opportunity to lead the cavalry south to save himself, otherwise he might not be alive.

Ping An was very cautious, and summoned Gao Wei, Qu Neng, Song Xuan and others to read the letter together, and after reading the letter, the generals beat their chests and scolded Sheng Yong for being cowardly and incompetent, and they all wanted to impeach Sheng Yong, but they were stopped by Gao Wei. Gao Wei's reason is very simple, I don't know whether this matter is true or false, it is better to hand over the letter to the emperor and let the emperor decide. Later, Gao Wei wrote a memo, described the incident, attached a letter, and sent it to the imperial court.

When the detailed battle report arrived in Zhu Yunwen's hands, Zhu Yunwen was also a little shocked, but then he was relieved, this was already a pretty good result, at least much better than Li Jinglong leading the troops. Ping'an fought with 55,000 cavalry and 110,000 infantry against Zhu Di's 80,000 cavalry and 30,000 infantry, and finally captured Baoding City, losing 40,000 cavalry and 60,000 infantry, and Zhu Di lost 40,000 cavalry and 30,000 infantry, which can be said to be basically a draw. What's more, this battle made Zhu Yunwen feel for the first time that Zhu Di is not invincible, and peace can be trusted. As for the lost soldiers, Zhu Yunwen waved his pen and immediately transferred 100,000 troops from Beijing and Jiangnan to replenish Ping'an, and the cavalry from the northwest to replenish them.

At the same time, Zhu Yunwen rewarded the front-line generals, and posthumously awarded Wu Jie, Marquis of Anlu, as the Duke of Anguo, and his son Wu Jingxi; Ping'an was promoted to the Marquis of Zhongyi, with an annual salary of 1,000 stones, and a reward of 2,000 taels of gold; Li Yuan, who was promoted to commander of the Ulzhou Guard, was appointed as the commander of the Guards Cavalry Army, responsible for commanding the cavalry army, and was rewarded with 500 taels of gold; Fang Zhao was promoted to the governor's office, kept Baoding, and rewarded five hundred taels of gold; The other officers rewarded the difference in gold.

The injured Qu Neng and Song Xuan returned to Beijing to recuperate from their injuries, and promoted Qu Neng and Song Xuan to the governor's office. Finally, according to Ping An's suggestion, Li Yuan and Liu Sui were promoted to the left and right deputy generals to assist Ping'an's Northern Expedition.

Generally speaking, there are many rewards for participating in the battle of Baoding, but most of the decisive battles with Zhu Di are rewarded with gold, money and grain, although Ping An himself has promoted his title, but the increase in Yulu is not much, and Liu Sui's promotion is to take over Wu Jie's position; In addition, Qu Neng and Song Xuan, who were injured, were promoted; Li Yuan and Fang Zhao, who came to help from afar, were promoted and given important responsibilities.

Regarding the bereavement pension of soldiers, Zhu Yunwen referred to the system of later generations and gave a pension of a certain number of years, but considering the actual situation of the local health center and the government, it was distributed in batches instead, so as to ensure the livelihood of the descendants of the soldiers who died in battle to a certain extent possible. For the specific level of bereavement benefits, Zhu Yunwen ordered the Ministry of War and the Governor's Office of the Five Armies to formulate specific standards. In the end, the standard presented by the military department and the Governor's Office of the Five Armies was very barbaric, that is, to judge the level according to the number of beheadings, although Zhu Yunwen didn't like it very much, but there was no better way, so let's try it according to this method first.

Although the courtiers thought that this battle should not be rewarded, because the court also suffered a large loss, Zhu Yunwen still insisted on giving rewards, especially Ping'an, and promoted the marquis, mainly for his contribution to Baoding. Baoding is 330 miles away from Beiping, and it only takes two days to get to Beiping, while Zhending is 630 miles away from Beiping, and it takes at least four days to reach Beiping.

Of course, some courtiers didn't think it made much sense to conquer Baoding, and in their opinion, how much difference could there be between two days and four days? The army drove straight in, conquered Beiping, Baoding and the like naturally looked at the wind and surrendered, wouldn't it be better to use troops like this? Among these people, Huang Zicheng is the most, and after Zhu Yunwen listened to the report of the Investigation Division, he just sighed and let him go.

When the edict of reward and death compensation arrived at the front line, the defenders of Baoding thundered with joy, and Ping'an and others were also relieved, and began to gradually receive reinforcements from the imperial court, preparing to attack Beiping after the beginning of spring.