Taihang Mountain, is a north-south mountain range, north and Yanshan Mountain Range, south to Henan, Shanxi junction of Taihang, is the Shanxi Plateau and North China Plain natural barrier. The west slope of Taihang Mountain is gentle, and the east slope is steep, the steep east slope is a sloping plain to the east, the width of this plain is about 60 miles from east to west, and the important towns of Hebei Zhending (now Zhengding) and Baoding are all located on this slope. Hebei Sanxiong Town refers to Beiping, Zhending and Baoding, the three towns are not far from the Taihang Mountain, in essence, are to resist the Shanxi cavalry that went east through the Taihang Eight Paths and gradually formed.

Taihang Eight Paths, as the name suggests, is the eight valleys in the Taihang Mountains, is the traffic artery between Shanxi and Hebei, Jin Guo Yuansheng "Shu Ji Zheng" contains: Taihang Mountain begins in Hanoi, from Hanoi to Youzhou in the north, where Bailing, even the boundary of 12 states. There are eight mountains: the first is called Yiguan Cheng, which now belongs to Jiyuan County, Henan Prefecture, and is eleven miles west of the county; the second Taihang and the third Bai, these two are now in Hanoi; the fourth Fukou 陉, to Yexi; Fifth Well; the sixth flying fox, a wangduguan; The seventh Puyin is in Zhongshan; The capital of the Eighth Army is in Youzhou.

The Ming Dynasty was very good at repairing fortresses, which may be related to the origin of Emperor Hongwu, who was born as a peasant, and he was used to repairing fences, and then his wife and children were hot on the kang. The Mongols basically invaded from Shanxi, so the Ming Dynasty overhauled the fortress on the basis of the pass of the former dynasty in the east of the Taihang Eight Paths, such as the Jundu Trail built the Juyong Pass, the Puyin Trail built the Bauhinia Pass, the Flying Fox Trail (Lingqiu Ancient Road) built the Fallen Horse Pass, the Jingcheng built the Jingjing Pass, of course, there is a famous Niangzi Pass on the west side of the Jingcheng, which is said to be the place where the princess of Pingyang once fought.

To protect Beiping, the most important thing is Juyong Pass, so the first thing Zhu Di did when he raised troops was to seize Juyong Pass, so that he could not worry about his future, and the other Bauhinia Pass and Fallen Horse Pass were not because he didn't want to take them, but because he didn't have the ability, and even if he took them, he couldn't hold them, he didn't have so many soldiers or so much food. However, fortunately, these two passes are far away from Beiping, and in the south of Beiping, which is consistent with its offensive direction, Zhu Di's idea is to move south and seize the world.

The reason why Geng Bingwen is stationed in Zhending is that Jingcheng, more than 100 miles west of Jingcheng is Taiyuan, and staying in Zhending can avoid Zhu Di threatening Taiyuan, and at the same time, Zhending is also very close to Henan, and can gather reinforcements from Shanxi and Henan nearby; In addition, just in case, Geng Bingwen ordered Xu Kai to garrison Hejian and Sheng Yong to garrison Dezhou to block Zhu Di's passage south to Shandong.

Geng Bingwen is 63 years old this year, is an old man who followed Zhu Yuanzhang, his father Geng Junyong is Zhu Yuanzhang's hometown, crossed the river with Zhu Yuanzhang, and was promoted to the head of the army. Perhaps because his father was too impressed by a sneak attack and died, Geng Bingwen was cautious all his life, and his ability to defend the city was also perfected in previous wars. He was named the Marquis of Changxing because he was stationed in Changxing for more than ten years, so that Zhu Yuanzhang did not need to look eastward, but went all out to annex Chen Youliang, and then died in the world. When discussing merit, Geng Bingwen and Xu Da are listed in the same rank, and they are also one of the thirteen founding marquis, and their qualifications are incomparable with Guo Ying, Marquis of Wuding, and Wang Bi, Marquis of Dingyuan, but Geng Bingwen is conscientious and conscientious, far away from disputes, and to some extent he is the second generation of following Zhu Yuanzhang, so he is very honored to become Emperor Hongwu's loyal minister.

Geng Bingwen still remembers what Zhu Yuanzhang said in his edict: "...... Your father and I live next to each other, close to flesh and blood, unfortunately died early, I regret it, with Ru Zixuan as the guest of honor of Jiangdu County, has become a good family, do not be suspicious; Thou art prudent and faithful, diligent in the king's affairs, and have been with me for more than thirty years, and thou shalt take care of the young lord, and if there are rebellious ministers and thieves, thou shalt ask for it......"

Geng Bingwen still remembers that when he received the edict, he cried like a mourner. Although Zhu Yuanzhang was cruel and murderous, he never treated him badly, and his eldest son Geng Xuan was the brother-in-law of the new emperor, and the family was rich and prosperous. But he really didn't expect that King Yan would really rebel, in his opinion, this is purely an egg hitting a stone, and the emperor is not as weak as he imagined, on the contrary, he is very sober-minded, and there is no problem with soft-heartedness. After receiving the news of the rebellion of King Zhou and King Yan, the emperor was very resolute, and immediately wanted to expel the two uncles from the clan and offer a reward for the heads of the two kings, which he did not even expect. Although under the persuasion of the courtiers, he withdrew his order and sent an envoy to Beiping to announce the pardon of the sins of King Yan Zhou, except for a few chief generals, all the sergeants were also pardoned. The emperor's conditions are not ungenerous, but in Geng Bingwen's opinion, King Yan may not accept it, since ancient times, even if he surrenders, there will be no good end.

But in Geng Bingwen's heart, he still hopes that King Yan will admit defeat, so that even if he dies, his descendants can still survive. In addition, in his opinion, the killing of heroes is inevitable in the past dynasties, but coupled with the royal cannibalism, the Zhu royal family will be considered tyrannical, cruel and murderous, if coupled with its poor background, the courtiers will despise the royal family from the heart, and the royal family in order to suppress the courtiers, will inevitably implement tyranny, at that time, the courtiers are the puppets in the hands of the king, and the loyalty of the courtiers is impossible to talk about, the demise of the Ming Dynasty can be predicted, and it will not leave a good reputation in history.

Therefore, since the violent Zhao went to Beiping, although Geng Bingwen gave strict orders to the armies to prevent the sneak attack of King Yan, he held the hope of what happened, hoping that King Yan would rein in the precipice. Therefore, although the emperor's holy decree came to his hands, as long as King Yan crossed the Lugou Bridge, he would consider it a rebellion and get the reward of the prince for killing him, but he never announced it, and he also hoped that he would not announce this in the end, which was not good for the emperor and King Yan.

Now Zhending has gathered more than 200,000 troops, and there is still a distance from 300,000, but it is enough, the elite troops in Geng Bingwen's heart have almost arrived, and those that have not yet arrived can only be used to strengthen their momentum. Zhending City is located on the north bank of the Hutuo River, more than 20 miles in circumference, is a male city, can garrison 100,000 troops, so Geng Bingwen will deploy the elite troops on the north bank of the Hutuo River, the inferior army on the south bank of the Hutuo River is reorganized and trained, the army on the north bank of the south gate of the city each set up a battalion, each battalion is 20,000, all are elite, there are 60,000 people in the city, and the pontoon bridge is erected on the Hutuo River outside the south gate. Geng Bingwen's plan was to protect the pontoon bridge with the east and west battalions, so that the army on the south bank could be reinforced at any time, and the army in the city would attack and defend according to the situation.

Although Zhu Di has more than 200,000 people, he can only mobilize more than 100,000, to the west to defend Juyong Pass, to the east to defend Yongping, and even need to garrison Tongzhou to prevent the raid of Zhigu, in addition to the northern Great Wall passes also need to be guarded. Although Zhu Di had contacts with the Mongols, and even the Mongols such as Arutai and Mahamu offered to send troops to help the war, it was easy to invite God and difficult to send God, and Zhu Di did not dare to accept it. Therefore, although Zhu Di has more troops than in history, he can call on fewer troops, which cannot be said to say that Zhu Yunwen's pre-arrangement has played a certain role.

After the military meeting, Zhang Yu and Zhu Gaoxu led the vanguard to set off, and when the violent Zhao entered Xiongxian, Zhang Yu was in the distance, looking at Xiongxian with a telescope......