As soon as Xu Ning left, the soldiers standing on the side stepped forward to report: "General Wang Gui has sent someone." ”

"Bring it up!" Li Yanqing hurriedly said.

In a moment, a messenger was brought up, knelt down on one knee and saluted, "See Dutong!" ”

"Where is Jing Zhaojun now?" Li Yanqing asked.

"Qiqi Dutong, they passed the Tiger Prison Pass at noon today, and now they should arrive in Guancheng County."

Li Yanqing frowned slightly, before arriving in Guancheng, the Jingzhao army will not be able to reach Bianliang until tomorrow night at the earliest, and at this point in time, it is very likely to encounter an ambush by the Jurchen cavalry, the main force of the Jin soldiers should have arrived in the capital around tomorrow afternoon, and the previous 30,000 elite cavalry also returned at this time, and the Jingzhao army entered Beijing at this time, which was extremely risky.

He paced a few laps with his hands in his hands, he now needed to make a choice, whether to let Wang Gui take the risk to rush into the capital, or slow down a little, now of course he hopes that 30,000 Jingzhao can appear in front of him, but if he really encounters 30,000 Jurchen cavalry, 30,000 Jingzhao army can't escape the fate of the destruction of the whole army.

After pondering for a long time, Li Yanqing turned back to the messenger and said, "You go back immediately and tell General Wang that he is looking for opportunities in the periphery and not forcibly entering Beijing!" ”

"Obey!"

Li Yanqing asked his soldiers to take a few carrier pigeons to the messengers, and with the carrier pigeons in the capital, Wang Gui could contact him at any time.

The soldiers left in a hurry, and Li Yanqing turned around and asked Zhang Hu, who was waiting on the side, "How is the situation?" ”

Zhang Hu was ordered to go out to investigate the surrounding situation, and just rushed back, Zhang Hu sighed and shook his head, "The battlefield is too tragic, the corpses are all over the field, basically there are headless corpses, if it is not dealt with in time, a great plague will inevitably break out in the Central Plains this year." ”

Li Yanqing sneered, Jin Bing has always ignored it, it is best to break out of the plague, and they can't hide either.

"Dutong, between now and dawn is the last chance to escape from the capital." Zhang Hu added in a low voice.

"What do you mean by that?"

Zhang Hu hesitated for a moment and said cautiously: "Didn't Dutong think about letting the Son of Heaven evacuate?" ”

Li Yanqing was speechless for a while, he also thought that if Zhao Huan was just an ordinary prince or prince, maybe he would help him leave, but he had already ascended the throne, the performance of the past six months was really disappointing, capricious, listening to slander, weak and incompetent in his bones, today the loyal ministers in the court were deposed, traitors and villains occupy high positions, Zhao Huan has an unshirkable responsibility, such a faint monarch is the misfortune of the Great Song Dynasty, and it is also the misfortune of thousands of innocent people, rather than crying all the way, it is better to cry as a family.

Thinking of this, Li Yanqing said lightly: "From the moment he ordered the whole city to search for me, he lost the last chance to escape, this is the will of heaven, if you go against the will of heaven, you will be punished by heaven!" ”

"Ignorance, understood!"

Li Yanqing glanced at him and added: "After dawn, you send an eagle letter to Jingzhao, please King Kang immediately set off to the capital!" ”

Zhang Hu bowed and hurriedly left.

Li Yanqing slowly pulled out his sword, squinting at the cold light on the sword, this is a shocking gamble, if he wins, he will change the tragic scene of history, if the bet is lost, he Li Yanqing will also explain here.

............

As Li Yanqing expected, not long after dawn, Xu Ning came back with an angry face, and as soon as he saw Li Yanqing, Xu Ning said angrily: "I really should listen to you, my lungs are going to explode today!" ”

"Met those compromisers again?"

Li Yanqing smiled slightly, he knew in his heart, if it was just Zhao Huan who refused, then Xu Ning would be full of frustration at most, but now that he came back angrily, needless to say, he must have met the people from the Zhizheng Hall.

Xu Ning said hatefully: "I really don't know how those people's minds grow? After suffering a lot of losses, he still believed in Jin Bing's so-called promises and pinned all his hopes on peace talks. ”

Xu Ning sighed again, "The official family refused to see me, only let people bring me a message, if there is anything I want to report to the Zhizheng Hall, at this time, Bai Shizhong and Wu Min rushed here, for fear that I would really affect the official family, but I quarreled with them in a fit of anger." ”

"They didn't ask you to hand me over?" Li Yanqing asked with a smile again.

"It's strange that they don't seem to care about you anymore, and I can clearly guess your whereabouts from my words, but they don't even mention handing you over or anything like that."

Li Yanqing also felt strange, he pondered for a moment and smiled: "Maybe the conditions of the Jin people have changed, and there is no need to hand me over again." ”

Xu Ning nodded, "It should be like this, otherwise I really can't find a reason." ”

In fact, neither of them guessed the real reason, Bai Shi and the others couldn't find Li Yanqing, and seeing that the deadline had arrived, they had to implement a backup plan, and handed over a head that looked like Li Yanqing to Liang Zhongshu and took it away.

Things are so funny, two hours ago, they were eager to dig three feet into the ground and dig Li Yanqing out, but only two hours later, they were eager to dig three feet into the ground and bury Li Yanqing completely.

Xu Ning held a glimmer of hope, hoping that the official family could reuse Li Yanqing and hand over all 50,000 troops to him, maybe the capital still had the possibility of defending, but now he finally had to face the grim reality, and the official family had been completely tied to the ship of compromise by the peace faction.

"Dutong, what do you think we should do next?"

This is the most realistic and critical question, Li Yanqing pondered for a moment and asked, "How many trebuchets are there in the southern city wall?" ”

"There are not many trebuchets in Nancheng, there are only forty-two in total."

"Send half of it to the inner city, directly to the Cao Mansion, and it's better to send soldiers to defend it."

Li Yanqing was well aware of the inventory situation, almost all the trebuchets were deployed to the city, and there was no stock in the warehouse.

Xu Ning didn't have any doubts, and immediately sent someone to unload the twenty trebuchets and send them back to the inner city, but he felt uncomfortable in his heart, and Li Yanqing made this arrangement, so he was obviously not optimistic about the defense of the outer city.

Li Yanqing understood his thoughts, and said slowly: "Plan for the worst, do your best, the only thing I am worried about is the earth-shaking thunder, the power of the earth-shaking thunder in the Jin country is very small, and the proportion of dumb thunder accounts for more than half, so the last time they attacked the capital, they didn't use the earth-shaking thunder much, and this time I don't know how many captured sky-shaking thunders they have in their hands, but as far as I know, they should have captured dozens on the south bank of the Yellow River, the key is Taiyuan, when I left Taiyuan, I left five thousand earth-shaking thunders in Taiyuan, I don't know how many earth-shattering thunders fell into the hands of Jin Bing in the end? ”

Xu Ning's eyes lit up, and he said with a smile: "Du Tong is a little not very confident, he is worried about the earth-shattering thunder in Jin Bing's hands, right?" ”

"It should be!"

In fact, Li Yanqing was not only worried about the earth-shaking thunder, but also worried about the fire oil of the Jin soldiers, in order to defend against the fire oil, the Jingzhao Army had carried out targeted special training, so I don't know if the New Taipei Army had such training.

In other aspects, Li Yanqing was also a little worried, but it was not very serious, he knew that the New Taipei Army was well-trained, and he had also experienced two siege battles, and if he could play well, he would be able to fight with the Jin soldiers.

Xu Ning smiled again: "But Dutong doesn't know how many earth-shattering thunders Jin Bing actually has in his hands, so I'm right!" ”

Li Yanqing nodded, "I just estimated that they have one to two thousand or so, but I don't know how many there are?" ”

"Maybe there are not many Jin soldiers in their hands, needless to say, on the side of the deputy marshal, at a critical moment, I believe that he will destroy the earth-shaking thunder in his hand, and on the Taiyuan side, I remember that the Song army defending the city withdrew from Taiyuan, so will all the earth-shaking thunder that cannot be taken away be blown up or destroyed by water before retreating?"

Li Yanqing bowed his head and was silent, he admitted that Xu Ning's inference had a certain truth, the earth-shaking thunder was very squeamish, and it was very easy to destroy it, basically it would be destroyed when it met with water, and the most convenient way was to pull out the fire rope directly, but the spout of the earth-shaking thunder was more special, it was a kind of screw mouth, if you wanted to reload it, ordinary firesmiths couldn't do it, only ten special firearms craftsmen could load it, seven of these ten people were in the capital, and the other three were in Jingzhao Mansion, Taiyuan and Daimyo's Mansion did not have such craftsmen.

What's more important is that the bottom of the screw mouth is equipped with ignition gunpowder, once the fire rope is pulled out, the ignition gunpowder will leak directly into the thunder body, and this ignition gunpowder is a top-secret formula, at present only Li Yanqing and Hao Da, Hao Er three people know, even if Jin Bing finds the most clever gunpowder maker, can break the secret of the screw, but can not match the ignition gunpowder, the same can not be detonated.

After a while, Li Yanqing nodded slightly, "Of the two armies retreating from Taiyuan, Han Shizhong I am not worried, I am afraid that Yao Gu does not have enough knowledge of the earth-shaking thunders and did not destroy them in time, but you are right, there should not be many sky-shaking thunders in Jin Bing's hands, one to two thousand is a bit exaggerated." ”

Speaking of this, Li Yanqing said: "My own soldiers have a lot of experience in fighting with the Jin soldiers, so it is better to integrate all of them into the New Northern Army and let them serve as the head of the capital as before, which should be of great help to resist the Jin soldiers." ”

This plan was very timely, and Xu Ning was immediately overjoyed, "I'll go and discuss with He Xianggong now!" ”

Xu Ning turned around and was just about to leave, Li Yanqing pressed his shoulder and smiled: "By the way, the boss is He Xianggong, not me, I am the secretary of the Ministry of Rites, this principle has to be explained clearly to He Xianggong." ”

If some things are not explained clearly, there will be unnecessary misunderstandings, and when the war is coming, this misunderstanding often leads to fatal mistakes, and many major mistakes are caused by small negligence fermenting little by little, although Li Yanqing can't do everything, but at least the negligence he can take into account will be avoided as much as possible.

In particular, there must be no mistakes in the key details.

Xu Ning understood what Li Yanqing meant, and said in a deep voice: "I understand, I will directly discuss with Zhang Qing about the placement of pro-soldiers, and I will not go through He Xianggong." ”

Li Yanqing nodded, that's right.