Wanyan Zonghan, the eldest prince of the Jin Army, has always been very majestic in front of the officials of the Song Dynasty, but in the eyes of the common people, it is very ordinary, nothing remarkable. The militia in Zezhou and Luzhou also specially greeted Wan Yan Zonghan. When Yan Zonghan returned to the north, they attacked his military camp and almost swept the whole army and met him face to face.

In contrast, the rebel army in the Hebei region was larger.

There is a Wuma Mountain in Hebei, and the strength of the rebel army stationed far exceeds that of Kaifeng, the capital of the empire. The village is built here on the mountain, which is taller and stronger than the artificially built city wall; There are 100,000 troops here, all of them are spontaneously gathered loyal militia, and in terms of quality and strength, they are much stronger than the rotten forbidden army.

More importantly, other militias in the Hebei region are at its command, and the number of militia members together is hundreds of thousands. Such a force is enough to become a country of its own in troubled times. And these people have been waiting for the appeasement of the imperial court.

Li Gang saw that such a powerful force was at his fingertips, and thought that this was simply a great blessing for the country. He suggested that the emperor Zhao Ji immediately send someone to receive, Zhao Ji and He Li, Sun Fu, Cao Fu after consulting with the three prime ministers, thought it was feasible, but did not know who could receive it, and completed the reorganization work in a short period of time, forming a combat effectiveness to help Zhang Shuye, Li Gang recommended Zong Ze to go, Zhao Ji agreed, sent Zong Ze to collect the people's army, and asked him to recover the two towns of Zhongshan and Hejian.

Zong Ze's work was carried out very smoothly, he only brought 2,000 cavalry to take office, less than a month's effort, he collected 200,000 people, learned that Zhang Shuye was in Taiyuan City and the main force of the Jin army decisive battle, he immediately led the whole army to help, but when he arrived, with the help of Sun Hui, Zhang Shuye had already defeated the Jin army.

After the recovery of Taiyuan, the remnants of the Jin army rushed all the way north, and the Jin army in Hejian and Zhongshan two towns also abandoned the city and fled north.

Now that he learned of the great victory in Taiyuan, the people's armies from all walks of life rushed to come and attach, and soon formed an army of 100,000 people, because of the abundant troops, the Song army had begun to advance to the sixteen states of Yanyun by different routes.

Hearing these news, Yue Fei was extremely excited, diluting the sadness of losing his younger brother.

Yue Fei was annoyed that he couldn't participate in the battle to recover the Yanyun region because he was injured, but he didn't expect that even if he wasn't injured, there would not be many battles he could participate in next.

And Sun Hui did not act with any army, but flew back to Tokyo with Ye Chuchu and Hu Liying.

Now the front line basically doesn't need him anymore, what he has to do is to ensure the safety of the logistics line of Zhang Shuye and Zong Ze's army, and by the way, look at Zhao Ji, and prevent him from being influenced by those Wenchen who love to make trouble against military generals, cut off the logistics supply of the army, and prevent the situation of falling short.

Under his supervision, Zhao Ji was not as brainless as Cai Jing was in power, but restored the weather at the beginning of his reign, diligent in national affairs, and did everything possible to raise food and grass for the army and transport it to the front line.

In fact, after the Song army won a great victory in the first battle of Taiyuan, the Jin army no longer dared to confront the Song army, but fled all the way to the north, most of the sixteen states of Yanyun were directly abandoned, and the Song only went to receive, during which only some small-scale battles occurred, and because of the prestige of the Song army, the Western Xia people withdrew from the Song Dynasty land occupied by taking advantage of the Song and Jin wars.

For the restoration of the Central Plains, Sun Hui has his own set of ideas, sending Zongze to Kaifeng City is only the first step, and more importantly, it is more important to put armor on Kaifeng City.

The geographical location of Kaifeng determined that it could not be without a perimeter defense line. The topography of Yima Pingchuan, if there is no natural danger of the Yellow River, the arch guards of Hedong, Hebei and other places, no matter how strong it is, it cannot cope with foreign enemies. Sun Hui seized the sixteen states of Yanyun in order to move the Song Dynasty's defense line north.

After taking the Sixteen Prefectures of Yanyun, how to operate became a big problem, and at this time, Zong Ze showed his unparalleled talent.

He ran Youzhou City wholeheartedly and created a miracle in a very short period of time. He actually turned the ruin-like Youzhou City into an unprecedentedly powerful fortress.

When Zong Ze arrived at Youzhou City, he saw a ruined market, a city defense with ruined buildings and mixed soldiers and civilians. In broad daylight, thieves can be seen everywhere, and the common people have no food or clothing, this is a ruined city, a dead city.

Zong Ze is the kind of person who can cheer up in the face of adversity, he is convinced that his nation is strong, as long as the people in power are rational and a little braver, miracles will definitely happen.

He first arrested several well-known thieves, and announced that the laws of the Song Dynasty would be restored from now on, and anyone who dared to steal and commit crimes, no matter how much the stolen goods, would be subject to military law. That is, beheading.

Zong Ze did what he said, and as soon as a few bloody human heads landed, the order of Youzhou City immediately returned to its original appearance. Then, he built the city defense, repaired the weapons and rebuilt the enemy buildings in various parts of Youzhou City, and built more than 1,200 additional chariots. After that, he went out of the city and went to the suburbs. The two battles for the defense of Tokyo gave Zong Ze a very painful lesson, that is, the Song Dynasty lost the facilities outside the city for the first time every time.

Zong Ze built twenty-four defensive points in the precipitous area outside the city, which were organically combined with the defense of Youzhou City itself, which built the first line of defense in the suburbs. At this time, in the vicinity of Youzhou, whether it is a militia or a thief, this kind of civilian armed force is amazingly large, and hundreds of thousands of people gather together at every turn. Moreover, they not only hated the Jin people, but also hated the Song Dynasty, and it can be said that it is extremely difficult to get them to submit. But wherever Zong Ze went, more than 100,000 people were immediately incorporated and became Zong Ze's subordinates. This kind of thing happened again and again, such as Wang Shan, Li Gui, Yang Jin and others all stood by Zong Ze's side at this time and became his assistants. Everyone gave up on themselves in this way, putting aside their prejudices about the Song Dynasty. The reason why this is the case can only be attributed to Zong Ze's personal prestige.

In this way, Zong Ze made the army of the newly recovered Yanyun region increase day by day, reaching more than one million people in a short period of time, and at the same time, the military discipline was strict. With these foundations in hand, he swept away the surrounding Jin Ying, established a fish-scale-like Lianzhu Village in the periphery of the Sixteen Prefectures of Yanyun, and at the same time recruited displaced people to reclaim the land, so that this war-torn area quickly regained its vitality.

Sun Hui was also very surprised that Zong Ze was able to consolidate the defense of the Sixteen Prefectures of Yanyun in such a short period of time. He can be said to have underestimated the talent of this old man, who was nearly seventy years old.