When Li Mao heard the news of Liu Ji's illness and death, he was taken aback, and immediately ordered the whole army to advance quickly and immediately besiege Yingzhou City. The Anton army has just fought a fierce battle with the Yingzhou army near the White Wolf Village, the opponent is the Yingzhou generals Zhu Kerong and Zhu Kejian brothers, although they won the hard battle, they were all very tired, and they all wanted to rest for a few days.

The light cavalry of the front army threw away all the baggage and rushed to the city of Yingzhou, but in the end it was still a step too late, the city of Yingzhou had already been empty, and the Zhu father and son ignored the family business that had been operating for decades, and all of them moved to Youzhou with the people of the city.

The soldiers occupied Yingzhou without blood, but Li Mao couldn't laugh at all, he realized that he was facing a stoic, scheming opponent, with such a roadblock, the road to the Central Plains would not be opened in time.

The people of Yingzhou were emptied, their houses were burned down, the wells were poisoned, and after the vanguard army entered the city, they had no food and lodging for a while, and they survived for two days by eating dry food.

The army occupied the four fortresses separately, and Li Mao called the generals to discuss the matter. Seeing that Li Mao was sullen and unhappy, the generals did not understand what he meant, and Ma He said: "The army has occupied Yingzhou without blood, except for no one, no place to live, no water to drink, the city is still complete, and the government can still live in people, why is the marshal depressed." ”

Shi Xiong said: "If you fail to completely annihilate the Zhu clan in the city, it will become a big disaster in the future." ”

Ma Hedong said: "Youzhou Liu Ji is dead, Liu Qi is not blessed, and now Liu Hong is in charge, Zhu Huan moves his family to vote, he is bound to be suspicious, how can there be any good fruit to eat, he may have more means than Liu Hong, but on other people's territory, he must always be controlled by others." Even if we win the battle, it will also be a great loss of power, and it will not be easy for us to move westward and seize Youzhou in the future. ”

Shi Xiong sighed: "How can it be as simple as you say, the city that has been painstakingly managed by generations says don't want it, what kind of courage is this, Zhu Xun is a master, and he will become a strong enemy in the future." ”

Saying this, Ma Hedong also became silent, pushing himself and others, he may not be able to do well in Zhu Xun's position, and he will abandon the huge family business, he can't do it himself, he doesn't have the courage.

Li Mao said: "The matter has come to this, you don't have to worry about it anymore, how many catties and taels are Zhu Xun's father and son, we have also tried it in the White Wolf Village, although it is strong and not invincible, and now we can occupy Yingzhou without blood, we have won this expedition, and we don't have to be so sad if we win." Set up a banquet to reward the three armies. ”

The crowd will be overjoyed.

Before Qin Mo arrived in Yingzhou, he had heard the news that Zhu Xun had abandoned the city and left, saw Li Mao, and said: "The situation in Youzhou is very strange, Liu Ji and Liu Qi were obviously killed, Liu Hong is a fierce general, but he has no brains, there must be another master behind this, I suspected that it was Zhu Xun, but now it is not at all, he is too busy to take care of himself, how can he have this spare strength?" ”

Li Mao said: "You don't have to guess, it was Lin Ying who did it behind their backs, and they were lucky enough to meet Liu Qi, a wreck, and Liu Hong, a stunned young man, and let them drum and talk about it." And I went on an expedition, but I only got an empty city, and the things in this world are always so difficult for you to understand. ”

Qin Mo said: "I said, it's really smart to be afraid of muddy, muddy to be afraid of Leng, what kind of gentleman Liu Qi wants to be turned out to be a dead soul under the knife, Wei Wenbao and Tan Zhong are dead, Liu Hong is instigated a mutiny, and his father and brother are all killed at his hands." Bearing this notoriety, I don't think Liu Hong will be able to do it for long, and soon Youzhou will change again, so we will simply continue to move westward, seize Pingzhou, and wait for Youzhou to change, and then take Youzhou. ”

Li Mao said with a wry smile: "It's not easy to talk about, Youzhou, Hebei is strong, with more than 100,000 troops, Yingzhou is lonely, and it is the territory of the Zhu family, we may take advantage of the chaos, in the heart of the heart, Liaodong's current strength can't even knock on the door." ”

Qin Mo has been to Youzhou, and he knows that Youzhou's military strength is strong, and he is hard to knock on the front, and Liaodong is not an opponent now. Then he suggested to Li Mao: "The Zhu family went to Pingzhou, that's fine, Liaodong is all in our hands, let's manage Liaodong well, there will be another ten years, the soldiers and horses will be strong, and then move westward." ”

Li Mao said: "It can only be like this. ”

Between Yingzhou and Youzhou, the mountains are surrounded by water, the terrain is precipitous, it is the death place of the soldiers' march, which is not conducive to the march of the brigade, but there is a corridor along the coast, which is suitable for the march of the army. Li Mao led a light horse along the coastline, walked to a steep area, pointed to a mountain and a sea, and said: "Between the mountains and the sea, we will build a pass, named Shanhaiguan, to curb the Youzhou iron cavalry from raiding the heart of my Liaodong." ”

The generals have seen that Shanhaiguan is lonely and unfavorable for defense, so it is recommended to build a garrison in the south of Yingzhou and west of Hekou Town, so that the coastal corridor can be guarded when entered, and the eastern part of Liaodong can be used as a barrier to retreat, relying on each other with Yingzhou, constituting an important barrier in the east and west of Liao.

Li Mao agreed, the site has been decided, named Shanhaiguan.

He also chose a coastal port to build a military port for stationing naval forces.

In the attack on Yingzhou, the soldiers and horses of the White Wolf Village of Lu Longjun made Wang Jian fully cooperate, the two families have long been indistinguishable from each other, Liu Ji, Liu Qi father and son are no longer alive, Wang Jian has no friendship with Liu Hong, Liu Hong is saddled with the notoriety of killing his father and killing his brother, Wang Jian swore to the sky, swore not to be in the same stream with such a person, so he led his troops to take refuge in Li Mao.

Based on Wang Jian's headquarters, Li Mao transferred elite soldiers and strong generals to form the Eighth Division of the Andong Army, which was commanded by Wang Jian, stationed in Yingzhou and guarding the eastern and western borders of Liao.

Not long before, the Seventh Division, which was organized and trained by the Silla generals Song Menglong and Li Hongshui, had already formed an army, with Song Menglong as the commander and Li Hongshui as the deputy commander.

Bai Jin Tiyong was the deputy envoy of observation, and stayed in Liaodong City to assist Li Mao.

It was also divided into the third division of 700 Xi cavalry, which was expanded into the sixth division, with Kim Doan as the commander and Luo Ke's nephew Tassel as the deputy commander.

The 12th Division was divided into the 4th Division and 1st Division, with Huang Renfan as the commander, to guard Bezhou.

Ma Hedong led the main force of the Fourth Division to defend Shanhaiguan.

Veteran Xue became independent from the Second Division and formed a separate army, numbered the Eleventh Division.

So far, Andong's army has ten divisions with 31,000 men, and the number of each division varies, such as the first division, 7,000 men, the third division, 6,000 men, and the less such as the 12th division, only 1,800 men.

Zhu Hui abandoned the city and went to Youzhou, but Liu Hong had a problem, Zhu Hui was very old in Lu Long's army, although he abandoned Yingzhou, the strength of the department was still not weak, how to settle it was really a big problem.

The masters behind Liu Hong's scenes instructed him and tried their best to prevent Zhu Hui from returning to Youzhou, divide his forces, and divide and rule. Zhu Wei was appointed as the assassin of Pingzhou, and stayed in Pingzhou, with 11,000 people, divided into three parts, one led by Zhu Keding, with 2,000 people, stationed outside Youzhou City, and stayed in Youzhou City; One was led by Zhu Kerong, with 3,000 people, to guard Mozhou and defend Chengde, Yiwu and Henghai; The Pingzhou garrison was about 4,000 people, most of whom were old and weak.

He was also promoted to Shi Zhu Kejian, the governor of the original camp, as the assassin of the state, and he rose and descended secretly, and he was in the air.

In the face of Liu Hong's dismemberment strategy, Zhu Wei did not complain at all, not only that, but he also offered to send his old wife and young grandson to Youzhou City as hostages to show his absolute obedience to Liu Hong.

Liu Hong was not polite to him, accepted two young grandchildren to raise by his side, and placed his old wife who had been with him for decades in Youzhou City, thinking that he could sleep in peace and quiet.

The battle of Yingzhou ended with such an ending, which made Li Mao feel like he was punching the cotton and had nowhere to focus, and his heart was empty. According to the original plan, at this moment, all the armies gathered in Yingzhou, grain, grass and ordnance piled up, to see that the time was still early, he suddenly decided to send troops from Yingzhou, to the middle and upper reaches of Liaodong, and the front of the troops was directly aimed at the Khitan and Murwei people who were entrenched here.

As soon as the battle of Liaodong ended, the Khitan and the Murwei secretly concluded an armistice agreement, but on the surface they were still noisy and fighting, and they actually joined forces to cast a smoke screen on Li Mao, Li Mao expected that if the two departments recovered their vitality, they would inevitably retaliate against Liaodong, it was better to strike first, and the attack on Yingzhou was to isolate the Khitan, and Yingzhou and Khitan were secretly at peace, and they had been entangled and used each other.

Without the covert support of Yingzhou, the Khitans were like a broken arm, and the situation was favorable to Li Mao.

Both sides were exhausted, and there was no other way but to crush in the face of the fierce offensive of tens of thousands of Anton's troops.

Li Mao's army marched in unison, first with a rout, disrupting the formation of the two troops, so that they could not care about each other, and then scattered the pursuit into pieces, so as to disrupt and bully others.

After months of fierce battles, Li Mao put the fifth division full of men and high morale, and the chaos suddenly became clear, the Khitans abandoned their new allies and retreated first. Sprite Hua led a group to stay in Liaodong to fight guerrilla warfare with Li Mao.

Accompanying the Murwei people to fight guerrillas in the forest, Anton's army suffered enough, lost its troops and suffered repeated defeats.

Li Mao had no choice but to use himself as a bait, set up heavy troops in the Valley of the Fire King, coaxed Sprite to lead his troops to attack, the two fought fiercely for a day, Sprite was defeated, ambush the soldiers cut off the way of the Murwei people, used the heavy pine resin oil armor on the Murwei people to set fire to attack, and used explosives to blow up the mountain to block their retreat, and 1,800 Wang Shi Bart died in the fire.

Sprite was spared the annihilation of the entire army, took off her armor, and was sent to surrender to Li Mao.

Li Mao was based on the old department of the Xue family army in Liaodong City, absorbed the soldiers of the Mur Wei, and trained into the Ninth Division, with Sprite as the commander and Xue Qingnian as the deputy commander.

In October, Li Mao came to Columbia to review the gains and losses of the battle.

This not fierce pursuit battle also exposed many shortcomings of Anton's army: it was good at attacking and defending cities, not good at field warfare, and the infantry and naval army were strong, while the cavalry was weak. In the face of the guerrilla tactics of the small group of Khitans, there was no better way to deal with them, and they were also a little powerless against the Murwei people, who were heavily armoured, and the coordination between the various departments was poor, there were too many levels, and the command was not smooth enough. Wait a minute.

Anton's army is large but not strong, it has not fought a decent hard battle, it is far from being a strong force, and there is no big opponent in Liaodong at present, and the smart Khitans have begun to move westward to avoid the edge of Liaodong. Half of the people of Murowei retreated to the northern forests by instinct and returned to ignorance to become savages, and half longed for civilization, walked out of the forest, and took refuge sincerely.

For those who are savages, it is obviously not wise to chase after them.

Silla had already succumbed, and after Kim so-jong returned to China, there was internal strife, and both factions confessed their loyalty to Li Mao and vied for support.

Who is next?