Time passed quickly, three days passed, and on the eve of the army's departure to the north, Li Yanqing returned to Fuzhong to say goodbye to his family.

Cao Yun specially asked the kitchen to make a sumptuous dinner for her husband to practice, but this meal was very silent, everyone at the dinner table did not speak, Cao Yun reluctantly smiled: "Husband, how long will this Northern Expedition last?" ”

"At least two months, as long as half a year, I think I should be able to go home for the New Year."

"But by then the child had already been born."

Li Yanqing said with a smile: "So you have to report my safety in time and tell me about the child's situation." ”

He looked at Sisi, who nodded slightly, "I will!" ”

"And Qing'er!"

Li Yanqing said to Hu Qing'er again: "You are responsible for protecting the safety of your family, if there is anything you can ask my father for help, in addition, you also have to practice flying knives hard, although you can't follow me north this time, it doesn't mean that you won't be able to do it in the future, the key is to look at your own ability, understand?" ”

"I see!" Hu Qing'er agreed in an extremely low voice.

"Can't the husband understand that he will leave in the morning?" Sisi asked in a low voice.

Li Yanqing shook his head, "The barracks have been closed since yesterday, and the marshal only gives each person two hours to go home to visit relatives, and he must rush back to the barracks before the hour, and he will leave at five watches tomorrow morning, and it will be too late." ”

At this time, Cao Yun raised his glass and smiled: "We don't hold back our husband, come!" I wish you a triumphant return soon, and we drank this glass of wine. ”

Li Yanqing replaced wine with tea and said with a smile: "I will definitely return as soon as possible!" ”

He drank all the tea in the cup, got up to say goodbye to his family, and left the mansion, the three daughters stood in front of the gate, watching Li Yanqing's figure disappear into the distance.

In July of the fourth year of Xuanhe, the second Northern Expedition of the Song Army officially kicked off

Seed Master Dao led 30,000 troops to bid farewell to the capital all the way north, his 30,000 troops were very well-equipped, ordinary infantry soldiers wore hats, iron armor, foot boots, each soldier was equipped with a standard standard spear and a war knife, a shield on his back, the shield was a roll of blankets, in addition to water bottles, dry food bags and other necessary things, infantry crossbowmen were not equipped with spears, but a divine arm crossbow and a pot of crossbow arrows.

The cavalry wore bronze helmets and gold-lacquered iron armor, and their equipment was similar to that of the infantry, but with an extra bow and a pot of arrows.

The officers are also clearly hierarchical, the head of the team and the head of the capital wear iron helmets, wearing black lacquer Shunshui mountain armor, preparing generals and partial generals and other middle-level troops wear copper phoenix wings and armor with vermilion lacquer mountain characters, and the middle and senior generals above the commander wear silver phoenix wings and black hammer armor.

Such equipment belongs to the standard equipment of the Song Army's forbidden army, and only the Tianlong Forbidden Army, which has the highest status, can also wear black lacquer Shunshui Mountain character armor for soldiers.

As for the local army can only wear leather armor, and it is not easy for the village soldiers to wear cloth armor.

Three days later, the army crossed the Yellow River in Puyang County, Kaide Province, and entered the territory of Daimyofu, and on the morning of that day, the army arrived in Daming County, and the army was ordered to set up camp in the wilderness east of Daming County, where they would join the 30,000 Xiang army from Jingdong Lianglu and the 20,000 army of Liu Tao from Zhending Province, and formally form an army of 80,000 people to the north.

Ten days after the rectification of the Daimyo's Mansion went north to Bazhou, according to the deployment of the imperial court, the Northern Expedition West Route Army will go north to Zhendingfu to prepare for war, and from the beginning of August, it will cross Yishui from Baozhou to attack Yizhou of Liao, and the Eastern Route Army will also start from August 1 to cross the border from Bazhou to attack Zhuozhou of Liao.

The Second Northern Expedition Song Army had a total of 200,000 troops, of which the Western Route Army was the remaining 120,000 troops of the First Northern Expedition, commanded by Xin Xingzong and Xuanfu Tong Guan, while the Eastern Route Army was a newly formed 80,000 army, commanded by the Seed Division.

Before the East Route Army entered the Daimyo's Mansion, Liu Tao had already led 18,000 recruits to arrive at the Daimyo's Mansion first, and in the afternoon of the same day, the 30,000 Xiang Army of Jingdong Road also arrived at the Daimyo's Mansion, and converged with the main force of the Seed Master's Road, and the camp suddenly became extremely lively, especially the Jingdong Xiang Army also brought tens of thousands of ox carts full of grain and grass, which simply made Zong Ze, who was in charge of logistics, busy with his feet.

In the afternoon, Li Yanqing brought back 6,000 Hebei recruits from the Chinese army, of which 5,000 were recruited to supplement the battalions, and the other 1,000 were used as logistics baggage and firearms battalions.

Wang Gui ran to Li Yanqing's side and asked in a low voice, "Have you seen the fifth brother?" ”

Li Yanqing shook his head, "I haven't seen anyone else, but I know that he has been taken away by the Zongdu Commander, but all of our six thousand people are Hebei disciples, and there are two thousand people in Xiangzhou alone, and the Zongdu takes special care of us." ”

Wang Gui showed a look of disappointment on his face, he thought that he could bring Yue Fei to the right army, but he didn't expect to be preempted by Zong Ze, Wang Gui couldn't help sighing, "What's the point of logistics!" ”

"It should not be in charge of logistics, but in charge of military affairs."

Li Yanqing patted Wang Gui's shoulder and smiled: "Don't worry, he was originally a subordinate of General Zong, if you let him choose, he will also choose General Zonglao, go and choose soldiers!" It's too late, and the good soldiers are picked up by others, don't blame me. ”

Wang Gui no longer regretted Yue Fei's matter, and he ran to the camp

In the next ten days, it is necessary to make three armies from different regions, Hedong, Hebei and Jingdong, and it is necessary to integrate these three armies with different styles into a complete army, just like fusing three pieces of iron with different densities, the difficulty can be imagined, but what is even worse is that they only have ten days.

On the ninth day, the armies were still in chaos, and it was relatively easy to integrate the Hebei army, but the 30,000 Xiang Army on the two roads of Jingdong was an extremely difficult hard bone, as if there was a deep hatred with the Hedong Army.

Seed Master Dao paced back and forth in the big tent of the Chinese army, and he finally admitted that he had thought things too simply, and he still needed time to integrate the army, time! But there was only one day left for him.

At this time, Uncle Zhang walked into the big tent of the Chinese army at night and stood quietly aside, for a long time, the planter sighed, "Does Zhang Dutong have any good plans?" ”

"Marshal, not every army is so chaotic." Uncle Zhang said calmly.

"Yes! The right army and the front army were very stable, and five days ago they had already begun to drill their formations. ”

Seed Master Dao suddenly came to his senses, looked back at Uncle Zhang and said, "You mean to let these two armies go first?" ”

Uncle Zhang nodded, "There are only seven days left until the first day of the eighth month, no matter what, on the first day of the eighth month, we must have an army action, let the front army and the right army cross the border first, as long as they avoid fighting with the Liao army, it will not violate the deployment of the imperial court, and Tong Guan will not be able to catch the handle of the marshal, and it can also buy us time to integrate the army." ”

He also knew that the civil officials in the imperial court did not understand military affairs, and he thought that the three armies would be poured together like three glasses of water and immediately blended together, and only gave him ten days to let him go north to fight, with such an army state going north, he would definitely be defeated.

Seed Master Dao sighed and said: "Actually, I shouldn't distribute the army like this, but should integrate all the Xiang army into the rear army and the middle army, and divide the 30,000 Hedong Army into the front, left, and right armies as a whole, which is my mistake." ”

"Dashuai, I'm afraid this matter has a beginning!"

"What do you mean by that?" The seed master looked back at Uncle Zhang.

Zhang Shuye said slowly: "My subordinates seem to have seen Tong Guan's figure in the box army on Jingdong Road. ”

The seed master said coldly: "You mean Qiu Zhaohe?" ”

Zhang Shuye nodded, "He is the person who Tong Guan planted in Jingdong Road, with him, how can the Xiang army on Jingdong Road listen to the command of the marshal?" ”

Seed Master Dao snorted heavily, "The decision of a country is related to the safety of the society, how can it be swayed by personal interests, since he Tong Guan has placed a stumbling block on me, then it depends on how I Seed Master Dao gnaws this hard bone." ”

"But the Son of Heaven asked the Eastern and Western Route Armies to attack Liao at the same time on the first day of August, and his subordinates were afraid that it would be too late."

"It's okay, just let the right army and the front army go first."

The sound of shouting and killing on the exercise ground shook the sky, two armies of more than 1,000 people were fighting fiercely, the two sides were the sixth battalion of Gao Pet and the seventh battalion of Cao Meng, both sides fought with wooden guns, dozens of cavalry were refereed in the middle, and constantly expelled the soldiers who were shot from the battlefield, they only had one hour, after the battle, the one with more remaining soldiers won, the main general was also fighting, and the main general won a hundred people.

The soldiers who were watching the battle were all around, all cheering for Cao Meng's seventh battalion, it was really too fierce for the sixth battalion led by Gao Chong, and it had won six battalions in a row, and Cao Meng had also won two battalions, this was their decisive battle.

Gao Pet is fighting with Cao Meng fiercely, and Gao Pet's dragon golden gun is sometimes like pear blossoms, snowflakes all over the sky, and sometimes like mercury pouring into the ground, pervasive.

But Cao Meng's pair of sledgehammers went out to sea like a golden dragon, flying up and down, sealing all the offensive lines of Gao Chong, as the most outstanding children of Gao Cao's two major generals in a hundred years, the two of them also represent the pinnacle of the martial arts of the two families, before that, the two have had four battles, and Gao Chong has the upper hand with three to one.

On the side of the martial arts, Li Yanqing also stood on the high platform to watch the battle, and Liu Jian next to him smiled and said: "This battle is relatively evenly matched!" The number of soldiers eliminated is about the same, it depends on who of the two commanders can win, and who is favored by the commander? ”

Li Yanqing said with a smile: "I think the two of them have similar martial arts, and their marksmanship is sharp, while Cao Meng's strength is outstanding, and they have their own advantages." ”

"High pets will win!"

Yang Zaixing said solemnly on the side: "Within ten rounds, the winner will be decided." ”

Liu Qian was stunned, "How can General Yang see it?" ”

Li Yanqing had already seen it, and said with a smile: "Although people are not weak, their horsepower is not good." ”

Gao Pet and Cao Meng have been fighting for more than 30 rounds, Gao Pet rides a white horse, and Cao Meng is a black horse, this horse is still his grandfather's ride, very strong, can withstand Cao Meng's weight and eighty pounds of sledgehammer, but this horse is already more than ten years old, after the prime of life, after more than 30 rounds of fierce fighting, the physical strength is a little unbearable.

At this time, the two horses were staggered, and Gao Zhong struck back the horse pistol, and picked Cao Meng's helmet, Cao Meng shouted, "It's good!" He hit the tip of the gun with a backhand, but the head of the gun suddenly disappeared, and Cao Meng hit the air with a hammer, only to feel that the horse's hind legs suddenly weakened.

He secretly screamed that it was not good, and he hurriedly straightened his waist to sit up, but he couldn't sit up, and the legs of the war horse under his crotch were weak, and he fell to the ground at once, lifting Cao Meng off the ground, and a sledgehammer flew out more than a foot away.

'When! While! While! The bell rang at the same time as the battle ended.