Historically, the Battle of Gaoping was a watershed in the entire medieval history of China. The fall of civilization came to an abrupt end at this tipping point, and a vast empire that had actually fallen apart for more than two hundred years began to reunify, although it would take nearly thirty years for the process to be finally completed. Since the Battle of Gaoping, the Middle-earth civilization, which has been completely destroyed by more than 100 years of cannibalism, has gradually recovered, and the Chinese population is about to usher in the third great leap forward in its development history. It's just that for the people in March of the first year of Xiande, this ray of dawn is still hidden under the dark night, and many people - such as Chai Rong, Zhao Kuangyin, etc. - do not know the meaning of the war they are facing, and it is difficult for them to think that after this lightning that tears through the sky appears, they will shoulder the grand task of re-nirvana of thousands of years of civilization. Except for Taiwei Li, who has a clear understanding of the development of history, everyone in this era has no time to think about the things that will happen after the war, whether it is Chai Rong and Liu Min, who are bent on tearing each other to pieces in the next Japanese war, or Yelu Dilu, who is currently struggling with how to smoothly withdraw troops.

Yelu looked at the tribal generals standing in the big tent, and for a while he wavered a little in his decision.

Received the alarm from Shuozhou eight days ago, and in the past eight days, more than a dozen messengers who called the police for help have come to the front of the army, some from their own family tents, some from the Yunzhong Deployment Division, and many from the accounts of various tribes in the southwest, all of them are injured and tired, and some almost faint to death as soon as they enter the big tent. Without exception, Jerod confined him to the tent of the leather room, and kept him every day, providing him with food and wine to heal the wounded, but he was never allowed to go out and walk, let alone contact with the outside world. At this time, the Khitan was in its heyday, although Yelu was not liked by the relatives and nobles in Shangjing, but he was also a major general who had fought in the southwest of the town for many years.

In the past eight days, there have been no more than ten generals and non-commissioned officers in the whole army who have known about the changes in the rear, and these people are all the guards of Yelu Dilu, so this great Liao Yunzhong has been able to firmly control the news in his own Chinese army clan tent, and has not leaked the slightest thing. Up to this moment, the Liao army is still gearing up to wait for the coming battle with the Southern Dynasty army, with 30,000 Northern Han troops plus 30,000 Liao army tigers, the total strength is more than three times that of the Zhou army, even if you do not calculate the difference in combat power between the Liao army and the Zhou army, the chance of winning this battle is more than eighty percent. Most of the Liao army is still thinking about how many children and wealth can be captured from the Zhou Dynasty counties north of the Yellow River, you must know that when Emperor Taizong went south, there were hundreds of more than 1,000 nobles in the Great Liao overnight, and the sons and daughters who herded horses and sheep on the desert grassland all day long, in the face of such a glorious prospect, who could hold it?

Whoever sits in that clan tent position in the capital has nothing to do with these sons and daughters who eat and drink all day long, and it is serious to have a wealth of money.

Yelu did not fail to think about winning this battle and then collecting his troops to clean up the mess, but there were two things that finally strengthened his determination to withdraw his troops.

One thing is that there are more and more rear police calls, and they are all from different places. Looking at this posture, the trouble in the northwest is clearly not a petty fight and harassment, but a real fanfare, and the number of the Eighth Route Army reported by the southwest departments is as many as a dozen teams. Until the end of last year, the total number of infantry cavalry under Li Wenge's command did not exceed 7,000 people, and the team number was only five or six. Although so far Yelu Dilu has not been able to understand why the Yanqing warlords, who are far away in the northwest and have their own system, are so desperate for the new emperor of the Central Plains in front of them, they also know that the situation in the rear is no longer something that their poor remaining troops can control the situation, if they wait to win this battle, although they are confident that they will annihilate Li Wenge behind the mountain, they will inevitably let the southwestern provinces suffer a lot of poison. I'm afraid that I will see myself as an enemy for the rest of my life, and then the gains outweigh the losses.

At present, although Daliao is in the process of rapid sinicization, it is essentially a multi-ethnic alliance with the clan account as the basic unit. Although none of these small tribes dared to openly argue with the palace tent in Beijing, it did not mean that they had no political status, and the successive envoys in the southwest and Yunzhong in the history of the Great Liao were deployed, and none of them were able to sit firmly in the political atmosphere of all these southwestern tribes resisting and opposing, and Yelu could not afford to take this risk.

Another incident was that the expeditionary column horses he sent out to inquire about the situation of the withdrawal route engaged the cavalry scouts of the Zhejia family in the territory of Lanzhou, and although the damage was not large, the truth reflected by this incident made Yelu even more worried, which showed that Li Wenge's dispatch of troops this time was not at all an independent action of his own family, but an action of the three military alliances of the Zhiyang and Li families in the northwest that took shape in June last year to unify the pace.

This situation is much more serious, Yelu Dilu calculated that Li Wenge himself could not withdraw all the troops under his rule, and he didn't even want his hometown, so even if he mobilized desperately, the total number of troops he could send would not exceed 8,000 people, but if you add the Zhejia and the Yang family, it will be different, the total strength of the Zheyang family is between 9,000 and 10,000, and Shizhou, Qizhou, Lanzhou and other places are close to the nests of the two families, it is extremely convenient to send troops, and it is also very convenient to return to the army, so even if the two families pour out of the nest, they don't have to worry about the rear getting out of controlEven if there are some guarded places left, it is not difficult for the two combined forces to send 8,000 people to attack Qilan, so that counting the Eighth Route Army, there are at least 16,000 enemy troops in their rear, such a large-scale army is not at all the local defenders of the Northern Han Dynasty and the left-behind tribes in the southwest of Daliao can compete, once these three armies combined control the traffic arteries in front of and behind the mountain, and defend in danger, although the army led by himself at that time was large in number and powerful. But it is necessary to attack Yanmen Pass or Wuruan Pass bottle ridge far from the rear, the kind of terrain army can not be opened at all, the advantage of troops can not be played at all, once lost, they have to consider taking the army east out of the Jingcheng Pass through Hebei Zhuzhou to return to Nanjing Road to the mountain to recover the jurisdiction, so that the army will have to walk thousands of miles more, and across the enemy's territory, there are too many uncertain factors, it is better to take advantage of the fact that the enemy army has not yet joined forces, first send a large team of cavalry to attack Yanmen Pass, as long as the Shijie Valley and the upper and lower Langya villages are controlled, It has secured a strategic passage for the army to return to the division, once it crosses the Hengshan Mountain Range, the army is deployed, Li Wenge, just wait to die!

To send a large army of soldiers and horses calculated by 1,000 horsemen to maintain the back road, this kind of transfer is absolutely not hidden from the whole army, nor can it be hidden from the Northern Han army in the east, so Yelu Dilu has waited until today to make the news public like everyone else, that is, waiting for this moment when the two armies will start a war, once the war starts tomorrow, the Northern Han army will inevitably fight against the Zhou army on the whole line, and only at that time can the advance cavalry sent by himself quickly return to the division without being restrained. During the war, even if Liu Min found out, he would not show his heart from the chaotic army, and he had no spare strength to prevent him from returning to the division.

However, at this moment, looking at the eager eyes of the soldiers like wolves and tigers, he couldn't help but hesitate again, maybe the Zhou army will soon collapse in the first battle tomorrow, and then it will be much more stable to return to the division calmly, after all, in the face of the strength of the Han and Liao coalition army, the Zhou army's chances of victory are really not big.

He immediately dispelled his hesitation, as the commander of the army, the most taboo is to be constantly decisive, even if Gao Ping wins this battle. I don't have time to return to the clouds with the spoils of war slowly, and when the time comes, I will just cheapen the father and son of the Liu family for nothing, the land will not be obtained, and even the wealth of the cattle and sheep children will not be obtained, and the rear will be poisoned, even if I slaughter Li Wenge, it will not end well.

His majestic gaze glanced at the generals who were a little excited, and slowly opened his mouth to tell the warning information of the southwestern departments......

“…… Shuozhou has been completely eroded, and all the northern departments have also been attacked, there is no warning signal in the clouds now, and the situation is not easy to guess, the barbarians in Yanzhou have gone crazy this time, and they have come to bite the toes of our Da Liao, let's wave the army back, and kick the barbarians of the Li family to a pulp, and let these people in the Southern Dynasty take a look, and the heavenly wrath of the country on our palace tent! In the future, if there are any crazy people who dare to tickle us, let them think about it more......"

Yelu Dilu finished the enemy situation and his own decision word by word, and all the generals were still barely silent, although the look on everyone's face was a little miserable, but after years of accumulated power, he was able to barely get military discipline, but no one interrupted his words.

"The marshal is above, there are some things in the general's heart that I don't understand, and I ask the marshal to explain!"

A young general hugs his fists.

Yelu Dilu glanced at him, and his heart was relieved, this young man is a child of the Yelu royal family, his name is Brother Xiu, and he is considered to be the nephew of Emperor Taizong. This Yelu Hugo is only sixteen years old this year, and this time he is used in front of the Che Yulang Junjun rank, and he is also a clan, but his lineage is much closer than his own. This time, the first person to ask questions was not the tribal general but him, Yelu Dilu was determined in his chest, this smart young man has always been steady and wise, of course he would not give himself a problem, and stood up at this moment to rush to ask. Obviously, he wanted to give himself a chance to explain in front of the generals.

He smiled faintly: "Sunning Langjun, if you have something to say, you might as well talk about it!" ”

"Sunning" is the word given to him by Yelu Hugh when Yelu Hugo served as the Che Yu Bureau, the king of Nanjing Daonanyuan, Yelu Tart, at this time the Khitan was still in the early days of the founding of the country, most of the people in the country are still adhering to the tribal tradition, and there are not many people who learn the name of the Han people, Yelu Tart Lie is the backbone of the Northern Minister's main Sinicization, so it has always been disliked by the Empress Dowager Shulu, but after all, Tart Lie is a highly meritorious general, even if the sleepy insect emperor summons him in Shangjing, he must first greet him before proceeding, and the weight of this person in the court can be seen, However, this person has always been above the top, although he is modest on the face, in fact, there are very few people who can make an exception and personally give the word to Yeluxiu, which itself has shown that the king of the south attaches great importance to and is optimistic about this young man.

The titles of Yelu Dilu and Yelu Hugo are very far apart, and on weekdays, it is considered to be high to call the name directly, but today it is actually commensurate with the words, and I am really grateful that he has stood up at this time to relieve himself - a sensible child deserves the respect of adults.

Yelu Xiuge didn't hold it up, arched his hand and said: "The marshal already got the news eight days ago, why did he beat the drum and gather the generals today?" ”

Sooner or later, someone will have to ask this question, Yelu Hugo asked it, there is no malicious intent, the Khitan still has a very full military democracy at this time, even if it is a marshal of the first army, if he can't give a reasonable explanation to the whole army on the issue involving the interests of the clan account, even if there is no chaos in wartime, he will be impeached by the chiefs of the clan tent after the war.

Yelu Dilu nodded: "Although the military situation is urgent, it must be verified first, if it is a false alarm, it is a major mistake!" What's more, if you want to move north, the road passes in the northern state and county must be explored one by one, and the army must not be sloppy in its actions, otherwise it is not a pity for the commander to die, but he must miss the lives of his sons! ”

As soon as these words came out, all the generals nodded one after another, after all, Yelu Dilu only hid the news from everyone for eight days, and it was really a tense time to confirm the news and explore the circuit within eight days, and it was not easy for Yelu Dilu.

Brother Yelu Xiu was about to continue asking, but he heard a general shouting: "If you want to leave, you will pull out the camp at this moment, take advantage of the night, our northern country is fast, and we will go out for a hundred and ten miles overnight, and wait until tomorrow, but I don't know how many hours to delay......"

Yelu Dilu frowned, the name of the person who spoke was Anba Qidu, the current deputy commander of the Zhongshun Army, was a native of the Nirvana Ancient Tribe, and the clan tent tribe to which he belonged was located in the southwest of Shuozhou, facing the soldiers of the Yanqing Army.

Before Yelu could reply, Anba's words had already resonated in the tent, and many tribal generals echoed him, and the buzz in the tent suddenly began, and the situation seemed to be a little out of control.

Yelu Dilu's face sank, he grabbed the handle of the knife in his right hand but let it go, and shouted in a deep voice: "Shut up for us!" ”

This low shout suddenly stopped the chaos in the tent, and everyone turned their eyes back to the marshal, but saw Yelu staring at everyone like an eagle falcon: "Think about it with your pig brains, after Li Manzi can send troops to the mountain, can the barbarians of the Yang family be honest?" On the way home at this moment, how many Nanban people are waiting to see our jokes? You don't understand this? Although the Zhou people in front of him are weak, are they fools? What are the two stupid cows of the Liu family, don't you know? As soon as we withdraw our troops, can the Liu family still block the Zhou people for us? Without our support, does the Liu family have the courage to start an army? Don't wait for the two of them to start a war and stick together, let's go all the way, the Zhou people follow all the way, this horse's tail is entangled, how many distances can we travel in a day? Will you be able to go back and save our family and children? They are all old people, don't you understand the truth of such an idea? We're just waiting here for one more day, but we have to save a month for returning to the division, and we are all familiar with military affairs on weekdays. ”

When these words came out, the generals in the tent all hung their heads in shame, and these Liao generals did not understand these truths that Yelu Dilu said, but now they learned that their family members were killed again, and they were all in a mess for a while, and they only wanted to kill and go back to rescue the clan tent, and they lost the calm and cautious of the past battle.

Yelu Dilu stood up, pressed the handle of the knife and said with a face: "Today, Ben Shuai will say ugly things in front, we sent troops to fight here, but it is also a war to go back to the army to save the family tent!" How the battle is fought on weekdays, how it is still fought today, even if the sky falls, the rules in front of the battle are not broken. Which way should go first is which way to go first, what should go behind is to walk behind, no matter what the situation of your clan tent is now, the military order is like a mountain, which one dares to touch the moldy head of this handsome, the steel knife of the leather room Langjun is bright, the national law and military law are still there, all for you! ”

He paused, and said: "Not only today, is on the way back to the army, the same, the commander will make overall arrangements for the itinerary, which army should go first, which army will go first, which way you should go, you can only go which way, the daily itinerary, there is a fixed number, one mile is not less, one mile is not more, less to ask, if anyone dares to go more than one mile, this commander will borrow your head to calm the army's heart!" The parents, wives and children in the family, the old and young slaves in the clan, are looking forward to a division that can save them from fire and water, not tens of thousands of rabble who have no head and no face to rush all the way back! Do you hear them all? ”

Yelu Dilu stood by the sword, his face was solemn and solemn, and all the generals were awe-inspiring, and they all bowed their hands and said yes, and then Anbaqi Du bowed down and said loudly: "It is I who is confused, willing to be the marshal's military law, return to the division but according to the marshal's arrangement, after the front is broken, the beggar capital has half a word, otherwise, he is not the son of the Nirvana ancient family......"

Only then did Yelu's face soften, and he immediately ordered: "Since you have said it, this commander will order you to lead two thousand loyal shun troops as the vanguard, and then allocate you a hundred miles to explore the fence horses, from the party to the left of Taiyuan, and your department will protect the flank, but there is a Zhou person who delays the return of the army to the division, and you don't need to come back, so you will attach your head in the tent!" ”

With that, he casually drew an arrow from the hand of the recorder beside him and threw it down.

An Baqi took a few steps forward to pick up the arrow, and sang loudly: "Wow! ”

Yelu then threw a few more arrows out, and arranged the flanks of the left and right armies of the army to be guarded, and then pointed out the order of each army's camp and fortification.

Yelu Dilu sent out the arrows, and said: "Tomorrow to start the army, the marshal led the Wuding army out of the village array, for the Liu family father and son to sweep the formation, but when the drum sounded, the Xiongwu army took the lead in pulling out, a heavy grass valley is not allowed to bring, horses and armor arrows are not allowed to be abandoned, the camp is not allowed to set fire to the flag, the loyal army is subsequent, the Linqing army again, the marching queue is not allowed to be chaotic, not allowed to let the horses run, the marshal and the palace tent Zhulangjun, will lead the Wuding army for the whole army to break off, tomorrow one day can not finish, the Wuding army will go the day after tomorrow, the day after tomorrow can not finish, the day after tomorrow will not finish, the day after tomorrow will go, the day after tomorrow will go, You don't have to worry about the pursuit of the Zhou people, just restrain the troops, go slowly, and the whole army's far-sighted fences and horses are scattered, if anyone suffers the loss of the barbarian and Yang barbarian because of the impatient march, this commander can't spare him! ”

This order is clear and fair, with the marshal's respect for the palace guard leather room army for the whole army to break off, Yelu Dilu is worthy of shouldering the responsibility of catching and guarding the southwest of Liao, everyone is convinced, after a song, they all turned around and walked out of the tent, returned to their own military tent deployment.

Yelu finally relieved in one breath, and his heart temporarily calmed down, and he was about to ask the guards for a leather bag to drink a sip of water to moisten his throat, but he saw that Yelu Hugo did not follow everyone out of the tent, but hung his brows and hesitated about something.

Yelu still has a good impression of this clan boy, and a smile appeared on the corner of his mouth: "Is there anything else to do with Sunning?" ”

Brother Yelu raised his head and looked at Yelu Dilu, a look of hesitation appeared on his face, but he calmed down in an instant, and arched his hand: "Marshal, Brother Hugh has a word, please retreat from the marshal!" ”

Yelu was stunned for a moment, then smiled and waved his hand, and the guards in the tent walked out one after another, he sat down and said casually: "If you have something to say, the military situation is great, and I can't help it, the marshal!" ”

Brother Yelu raised his head, stared at Yelu Dilu's eyes and said, "Marshal, Brother Hugh is worried that if he returns to the army at this moment, he will arrive in Daizhou in half a month, but I'm afraid it's too late!" ”

Yelu sat up straight suddenly, his eyes saw through the cold light of the debut, and Leng Sensen asked, "What do you mean by this?" ”

Brother Yelu shook his head helplessly, but he looked directly into Yelu's eyes without fear, and said with a wry smile: "The last general thinks that Li Wenge will not give us so much time!" ”v