On the morning of May 23, the 150,000 Jingyuan army led by Zhao Zhe passed through Chang'an and came all the way to Tongguan.

At this moment, the gate of Tongguan was opened, and the soldiers passed through Tongguan one after another.

All the soldiers were majestic and high-spirited, and their morale was extremely high.

They were all sturdy young men with dark skin. In Guanshan all these years, they have been training every day, and they have naturally become like this.

Although they were on the march, their formation was also very neat. The military discipline in the army is like a mountain, no one dares to leave the army at will, no one dares to whisper, they are just moving all the way, constantly watching the surrounding scene.

Once, Tongguan was under the control of Guan Shaanxi, but later Zhao Gou and the Jurchens united and suddenly invaded, and they lost Tongguan. Now, at least nominally, this place belongs to Guan Shaanxi again, and they can already pass freely from here.

Of the 150,000 troops, 20,000 were cavalry, the remaining 80,000 were infantry, and 50,000 were crossbowmen. Although the Guanshan side had already conquered the Western Xia and obtained many war horses, a large part of these war horses were provided to the forbidden army. The forbidden army had two horses for one person, and the number of horses needed was extremely large. The land of the Xixia Hetao is a traditional Chinese horse breeding area, and they can provide more war horses, but these will take time. Therefore, the Jingyuan army is still dominated by infantry and crossbowmen.

At this moment, all the soldiers had excited looks on their faces, they were about to enter the Central Plains! In the past, when they were in Guanshan, they looked forward to entering the Central Plains every day, and now this wish is about to come true! They believe that as long as they enter the Central Plains, they will recapture these places and completely expel and exterminate the Jurchens there!

At this moment, on the city wall of Tongguan, Zhao Zhe is standing here, and a man is standing next to Zhao Zhe, it is Wang Yan.

Looking at the large armies passing one after another below, Wang Yan secretly admired in his heart, and he thought that the strength of Guan Shaanxi's troops was indeed far superior to Jiangnan. The Jiangnan army definitely does not have the momentum and discipline of the army below, and the combat strength of each other is very different.

"I also want to follow you into the Central Plains, but not for the time being. We have 600,000 rebels here, of which more than 200,000 will return to Henan, and I need to arrange my brothers before I can go to the Central Plains. Wang Yan said.

"I understand! By the time you go to the Central Plains, most of the Central Plains should have been recovered by us. Zhao Zhe said.

Wang Yan nodded lightly.

He had some regrets in his heart, he actually wanted to enter the Central Plains now, but he knew that Guan Shaanxi's staff headquarters would definitely not be at ease to let them enter the Central Plains. No one knows what will happen after they enter the Central Plains, there may be generals who rebel, and there may be some rebel leaders who occupy the mountains as kings, and it will be a troublesome matter at that time. Therefore, Guan Shaanxi's staff headquarters preferred to only send their own descendants into the Central Plains.

"By the way, you are going to Hebei, but there are people who can help you." Wang Yan said.

"I don't know who it is?" Zhao Zhedao.

Wang Yan beckoned, and the next middle-aged man in armor walked over, knelt down in front of Zhao Zhe, and said, "Hebei Wang Ze greets the general!" ”

It turned out that this person was Wang Ze, the leader of the Hebei Righteous Army who had entered Chang'an from Hebei South! He originally wanted to take refuge in Zhao Gou, he thought that Zhao Gou would definitely be able to win, but who knew that the situation had changed greatly, and he had no choice but to follow Guan Shaanxi.

"Hurry up." Zhao Zhedao.

Liu Ze stood up and said with a smile: "General, I have been in Hebei for many years, and I am very familiar with the terrain of Hebei!" We also have 20,000 or 30,000 brothers, and we can also follow you into Hebei. ”

Zhao Zhe nodded and said, "Okay!" ”

The army passed through Tongguan, and after walking forward for half an hour, they came to the Yellow River.

However, the pontoon bridge has already been erected here, and at that moment Zhao Zhe led 150,000 troops to pass through the pontoon bridge and headed towards Henan on the opposite side. They will march in Henan for some time, and then enter Hebei from the direction of Liyang. When the Jurchens first went south, they entered Liyang from Hebei and then went to Kaifeng, and they did the opposite.

The sun was red in the morning, Zhao Zhe was riding on a horse, his whole body was already wet with sweat, and so were the soldiers next to him, but no one asked to stop, they were just constantly hurrying.

There is an empty space in front of you, and you can't see the edge at a glance!

This is the land of the Central Plains that once flourished, but now there is nothing here but wild grass!

They had already walked for dozens of miles, and they had not seen a single village, not a single fertile field, except for weeds or weeds.

"Huh! There is a village ahead! At this moment, a cavalryman suddenly shouted more than 100 meters away in the distance.

"Let's go, go over and have a look!" Zhao Zhedao.

At that moment, Zhao Zhe led a group of cavalry towards the village, but when he arrived at the village, he already knew that something was wrong, there were no crops here, and there were weeds. The village was so calm that there was not a single sound to be heard. There were countless corpses and bones at the gate of the village, and Zhao Zhe entered the village with a group of personal soldiers, and there was nothing in the village except weeds and bones!

"Looks like it's a deserted village!" Zhao Zhe sighed softly.

They didn't stop here and continued to move forward.

After walking for another half hour, they saw the village again, but when they entered the village, it was still empty, and there was no one at all. It seems that the village has also been abandoned for many years.

They kept going on like this, passing through seven or eight villages, but there were no people.

Until the sun set, Zhao Zhe and the others came to the front of another village, where they finally saw the figure!

There were people plowing the fields outside the village, but when they saw the arrival of the army, those people seemed to have seen the most terrible thing in the world, and countless people ran towards the village with all their might!

The army had already arrived outside the village, and it was getting dark, and they were stationed there.

"Go and get the people of the village out! I want to ask them what is going on here? Zhao Zhe said.

At that moment, dozens of pro-soldiers entered the village, and after a while, more than a dozen villagers were "invited" out! In fact, none of the villagers dared to come out, and the soldiers had to force them to come out to see Zhao Zhe.

Some of these villagers were sixty or seventy years old, with gray hair and tattered clothes, and two or three were fourteen or fifteen years old, and their clothes were also very tattered, and their bodies were so thin that they could almost see the bones on their bodies, but most of them were middle-aged people in their thirties and forties, and their appearance and clothing were very embarrassing.

"Grass people see general!" When they came to Zhao Zhe, they all knelt down, and their bodies trembled, obviously terrifying.

"Lift them up!" Zhao Zhedao.

More than a dozen villagers stood up, but they were still terrified in their hearts, and they did not dare to speak or move.

"Folks, sit down! Have you eaten? Come on, bring the food from our army, and let the villagers eat it together. Zhao Zhe said.

After the army was stationed, they were cooking on a fire, and the food was quickly delivered to everyone.

"Let's all eat first." Zhao Zhedao.

As a general, Zhao Zhe ate exactly the same thing as an ordinary soldier, he ate it in a big gulp, and those villagers looked at me and I looked at you, and finally picked up the food and ate it. The villagers had apparently not eaten a full meal in a long time, and they devoured them one by one, and in just a few moments they had swept away the food in their bowls. The soldiers next to them were stunned at the moment, and when someone came to bring food, the villagers began to eat again.

Each of them ate the amount of food that the three ordinary soldiers ate before they stopped.

"This uncle, how many people are there in the village now?" Zhao Zhe had already stopped, and he said to an old man who was the oldest in his sixties.

"General, there are more than seventy people in our village." The old man said.

"Are there any other villages and towns around here?" Zhao Zhe said again.

"Twenty miles to the south, there is another village with more than 200 people in it." The old man said.

"It looks like your life is very difficult." Zhao Zhedao.

"Yes! It's been more than six years and I haven't had a full meal! The Jurchens often went south, and all the people in the surrounding villages died! The food we grow has been destroyed repeatedly! In the early days, there were some rebels who came, but those rebels also burned and looted! When we saw you coming, we thought it was a rebel! Now it seems that it is not. The old man said.

"We are subordinates of Emperor Xuanwu." Zhao Zhedao.

"Emperor Xuanwu? Who is that? The old man said in surprise.

The eyes of the surrounding villagers also showed expressions of surprise.

"Emperor Xuanwu is the original crown prince! After the city of Kaifeng was broken, he fled from Kaifeng to Hanzhong, and succeeded to the throne in Hanzhong as Emperor Xuanwu! Zhao Zhe said.

These villagers had apparently been isolated from the world for too long and had no idea what was going on in the world at all, so they stayed there one by one after hearing this.

"How many troops does Emperor Xuanwu have under his command now? Are you from Hanzhong? The old man reacted as quickly as he could, and immediately asked.

"Emperor Xuanwu has a million troops under his command! We didn't come from Hanzhong, but from Guanshan. Zhao Zhe said.

"An army of millions? That's great! Guan Shaanxi? Wasn't Guanshan occupied by the Jurchens? The old man said in surprise.

"Of course, Guan Shaanxi was not occupied by the Jurchens! At the beginning, there were Jurchens in Guanshan, but we soon drove them out! Zhao Zhe said.

"Can you drive the Jurchens away?" The old man said in disbelief.

"Of course you can get rid of them! This time we will enter the Central Plains, expel the Tartars, and restore China! Zhao Zhe laughed.

"Did I hear me right? Has Wang Shi entered the Central Plains? The old man looked at the rest of the villagers around him and said with a puzzled expression.

"Third uncle, you heard it right." Another older man next to him said.

"Is this true? In my lifetime, I was able to see Wang Shi enter the Central Plains and expel the Tartars? The old man was so excited that he burst into tears after a while.

The Central Plains is occupied by the Jurchens, and the people of the world are all looking forward to subduing the Central Plains! Especially the people in these occupied areas, they are even more eager for the arrival of the imperial army! They originally thought that the imperial court no longer existed, and the emperor did not exist, and they were already desperate in their hearts! Who knew that the imperial court was still there, the emperor was still there, and the army was still there.

"The Jurchens are very fierce, and the 800,000 people in the forbidden army were not Jurchen opponents, how can you beat the Jurchens?" At this moment, the youngest young man suddenly asked.

"Haha! Praetorian Army! What is a forbidden army? The Bianliang Forbidden Army back then, claiming to be 800,000 people, was actually vulnerable! Our Jingyuan army only needs to send 20,000 cavalry to defeat all the forbidden troops of that year. Zhao Zhe laughed.

At the beginning, 800,000 forbidden troops were stationed near Bianliang, but the 800,000 forbidden troops were a strange thing in Chinese history. The forbidden army is already rotten, and the 800,000 forbidden army is not even as good as the 800,000 people! Hearing the arrival of the Jurchen army, the 800,000 forbidden troops fled in despair, and they had already been annihilated in history!

"Can you really defeat the Jurchen?" There are also villagers who do not believe.

"Don't worry, you're here waiting for our good news! Now the situation in the world is very good, and the elimination of the Jurchens will only take a year or two! I am about to enter Hebei with 150,000 troops, General Qu Duan has entered Hedong with 150,000 troops, General Li Xianzhong has entered Yanyun with 150,000 troops, and will enter Shandong in the near future, there are only 200,000 Jurchens left in the Central Plains, and our more than 400,000 troops will surround them, and there is no problem in destroying them! Moreover, there are more than 100,000 Huanqing troops in Datong, and there are 80,000 elite cavalry led by two generals Yue Fei and Liu Qi on the grassland, and these many soldiers and horses may go south to encircle the Jurchens! There is no longer any problem in capturing the Central Plains. Zhao Zhe said.

After Zhao Zhe finished speaking, the villagers were still skeptical.

Zhao Zhe laughed out loud and didn't say more.