The next day, the sky was bright, and the army set out for camp.

Li Yanchao and Meng Ping were the vanguard, and they took the first step to attack Xiangping and Changli, and Li Congjing saw each other off in front of the camp. At first, Li Yanchao said that the army was divided into two routes, but in fact, under the condition that he attacked Changli and Meng Ping attacked Xiangping, the army had been divided into three routes. There is nothing wrong with this arrangement, and the fundamental reason for this is that the two armies are "fighting between wills."

Li Congjing is not worried that Changli and Xiangping will not be able to conquer, or even that Pingzhou City will not be able to conquer, what he is worried about is whether the army can hold this lost and regained land after Pingzhou City is conquered.

Now that Mo Li has gone to Bohai, Wei Dao is still in Youzhou to preside over affairs, and Li Congjing is the only one who can give advice to him. However, Du Qianshu is rarely involved in the military, and his director is not in conquest, but in government affairs. Du Qianshu is not as talented as Mo Li, less experienced than Wei Dao, he is still young, although he has been honed in the Khitan, his heart is tenacious, and his knowledge and thinking are not bad, but it will take time to become Li Congjing's right-hand man.

Even so, during the march, Li Congjing still discussed the situation with Du Qianshu in detail, and after Li Congjing threw bricks and led jade, Du Qianshu said: "With the military strength of the two armies of Baizhan and Lulong, and the commander of the army in person, it is not difficult to conquer Pingzhou this time, but it is difficult to defend the territory and resist the enemy." Defending the land and defending against the enemy are two things and one thing. Pingzhou was occupied by Abaoji a few years ago, and the profit was not much, but now it is taken by the military commander, and he will not be reconciled, and will definitely send troops to take it. If it sends troops to fight with the military commander, it will use good generals, and there are countless fierce generals in the Khitan State, among which there are eight people who are the most outstanding and most relied on by Abaoji, who can be called the eight tiger generals. ”

Li Congjing already knew a lot about the Khitan before and after, but he had never heard of the Khitan Eight Tigers, and when he heard Du Qianshu talk about it, he asked him carefully. Du Qianshu said: "The Eight Tiger Generals, Yelu Deguang and Yelu Bei don't say anything, and the remaining six people are the general of the heart of the abdomen, Yelu Xian Nichi, the general of the near department, Yelu Enemy Lugu, the North Courtyard Yili Jianye Lu Lie, the South Yuan Yili Jianlu Wanting to hide, the Prime Minister of the Northern Mansion Xiao Zhendu, and the Minister of Military Affairs Yelu Enemy Thorn. These six people are all Abaoji's confidants, all of them can be the pillars of the talent, when they are not kings, they will follow each other, loyal to them, Abaoji every time he personally fights, there will be several of them will follow. ”

Li Congjing knew in his previous life that the Liao State was known to have the system of two courts, the north court "governed the Khitan with the state system", and the south court "treated the Han people with the Han system", and Kang Moji, Han Zhigu and others led by the traitor Han Yanhui were the first to advocate this system, but I don't know whether this system has been perfected at this time. At this time, he said coldly: "The Khitan has been invading Youyun for a long time, and these six people are both prominent in terms of military exploits and status, and it is expected that their hands are not less stained with the blood of the border army and the Han people!" ”

Du Qianshu thought so, and said indignantly: "If you don't eat its flesh and drink its blood, you can't reduce the deep hatred between Youyun and this generation!" ”

These are all later words, when there will be a battlefield meeting in the future, Li Congjing has no time to worry about it, and asks Du Qianshu: "Can any of these six people be stationed in Yingzhou?" ”

Du Qianshu shook his head: "These people are already important Khitan ministers, and they are all in the Khitan territory, and they will not leave the country easily if there is no major war." However, I heard that the general who is now sitting in Yingzhou seems to be the son of the Southern Courtyard Department of Yili Jianye Lu Yin. ”

This is a pity, but in this way, the Khitan is to rescue Pingzhou, and there is no heavyweight general to arrive for a while, and Li Congjing can deal with it calmly. When he settles down Pingzhou, the Khitan will send troops again, no matter who leads the troops, he will not be afraid at all.

Li Congjing said: "If you conquer Pingzhou, how to defend the land, and how to resist the enemy, Sima Ke has a good strategy?" Li Congjing has appointed Du Qianshu as the Sima of the military government, so he is called.

Du Qianshu pondered for a moment, and said highly: "The way to resist the enemy, the lower officials know very little, the responsibility of defending the land, the military commander can rest assured, the lower official will call the military commander safe." ”

Li Congjing knew that Du Qianshu already had a draft, but he might not be mature enough to think about it, so he refused to say it deeply, nor did he force it, and decided to wait two days later, and it would not be too late to ask Du Qianshu after he had planned properly.

There was nothing to say for a few days, and on the fourth day, a military report came back from the front: Meng Ping and Li Yanchao had conquered the two cities of Changli and Xiangping.

Li Congjing smiled at Du Qianshu and said, "The two generals are so anxious! Changli and Xiangping are five days away from the place of departure, and today's good news is coming, which shows that the two generals have attacked the city for more than a day, and they are miraculous and fast, and they live up to the prestige of the good fighting division! "When I said that the city was broken in three days, I meant that the city was attacked for three days, but I didn't want Meng Ping and Li Yanchao to fight in one battle.

Even if it was good news, Du Qianshu was also happy, and asked with a smile: "Although the good news is the same, I don't know which general will conquer the city first?" ”

General Li Congjing handed it to him, "Coincidentally, it was the same hour." ”

After Du Qianshu read it, the general reported it back to Li Congjing, "However, the distance between Changli and Xiangping is slightly farther, and the enemy army in Xiangping is slightly more, how should this be distinguished?" The "battle of will" between Meng Ping and Li Yanchao is known to the whole army, and it is not a bad thing, because Du Qianshu asked.

Li Yanchao's attack on Changli was a little farther away, this was his active choice, he wanted to compare the two enemies with the one who was difficult, and then quickly win to praise his ability, but he didn't expect to level the enemy army a little more, so that his plan was in vain.

General Li Congjing handed the report to the military envoy and put it away, and said, "It's a draw." ”

When the Chinese army passed through Changli and Xiangping, they left a small number of garrisons to guard and stabilize the city, took Li Yanchao and Meng Ping's subordinates, and continued to rush to Pingzhou City.

A few days later, the army arrived at the city of Pingzhou.

As a state city, Pingzhou is much more majestic than Changli and Xiangping, but since Li Congjing led the army, he has conquered many state cities, and he does not lack experience in attacking big cities. Before entering Pingzhou, before the battle of Changli and Xiangping began, Li Congjing had sent sentry to Pingzhou City to investigate the situation, according to the news brought back by the sentry, there were indeed only more than 3,000 defenders in Pingzhou City, most of which were veterans who followed Lu Wenjin to kill Li Cunju and rebelled against Tang in the early years.

At the beginning, due to dissatisfaction with Li Cunju's arrogance, and the tragic battle of Shen County, the Jin army suffered heavy casualties, and many soldiers were reluctant to rush to participate in the battle. Later, his generals killed Li Cunju, and Lu Wenjin had no choice but to lead his subordinates to rebel against Jin and attack Xinzhou. Abaoji ordered Lu Wenjin to guard Pingzhou.

No matter what Lu Wenjin's purpose was in defecting to the Khitan, because his subordinates would kill Li Cunqing's brother, it was impossible for him to surrender to Li Congjing at this time.

After arriving in Pingzhou, Li Congjing immediately sent Guo Wei to lead Junzidu to Daifang City, and ordered the military to intercept the enemy army of the Belt Party to rescue Pingzhou City. As for the precautions against the two cities of Lelang and Xuansu, because of the distance between them, Li Congjing just asked Sun Erniu to be widely monitored by rangers.

This time to attack Pingzhou, Li Congjing prepared for a long time, and when the Hundred Battles Army arrived in Youzhou, he also stated this action in his letter to Li Cunxian, and it was not surprising that Li Cunzhen supported him. Li Cunxian has been sitting in Youzhou for many years, and he has not had the idea of recovering Pingzhou, especially the defenders of Pingzhou are all Han soldiers, which is even more unique, but he finally failed to do so due to insufficient military strength. This is the first battle in the true sense of Li Congjing's northward journey, and Li Cunzhen has no reason to be stingy, and the configuration of baggage and siege equipment is very sufficient.

Attacking 3,000 people with 10,000 people, Li Congjing didn't think there was any difficulty in this. The day and night before the siege, Li Congjing summoned the generals to assign siege tasks.

Li Yanchao was dissatisfied with the fact that he failed to gain the upper hand in the battle with Meng Ping in the early stage, so he came up to ask for battle: "The last general is willing to take the lead, if you can't overcome it, come and see you!" ”

Meng Ping had no intention of competing with Li Yanchao, but he couldn't ignore the face of the Hundred Battles Army, and he also went out to ask for battle, "The last general, please attack the first formation!" ”

The battle is not better than others, the defenders naturally have an advantage, the first battle because the defenders' defensive equipment is intact, and the soldiers are full of spirit, so it often means to touch the hard bones, and the casualties are much greater than those in the rear formation, and the first merit can overcome the battle of the city after all, after all, there are very few of them, often acting as a tired and weakening the role of the enemy, so where the siege battle, unless the victory is safe or meritorious, there are few generals who are willing to lead the first soldiers to the battle.

Li Yanchao is willing to fight for the front, and no matter what he is, this alone can satisfy Li Congjing on the battlefield. What is the combat strength of Lu Longjun, what is its military appearance and discipline, and what is the general and soldiers, because it is the army led by Li Cunxian, Li Congjing knows that it will not be bad, and he understands some of it, but it is not in-depth. To control Lu Longjun's army, he needs to be willing to be a soldier and be full of generals, which is Li Congjing's top priority after the war.

Li Congjing smiled and said to Li Yanchao: "General Li is brave, Lu Longjun dares to fight, Changli has already performed in the first battle, and the commander knows it." Now Pingzhou City is close at hand, the decisive battle will begin, the general's ears still have the general's words of 'the night can be down', every time he thinks about it, he is excited, now General Li is invited to take the lead, and the commander has absolutely no reason to refuse. ”

Li Yanchao seems to be reckless, and since the battle, he has been competing with Meng Ping and the Hundred Battles Army, and he has a tendency to not give up without distinguishing between the superior and the inferior. However, Li Yanchao and his own Li Congjing still know a little, and he is not a reckless person, otherwise how can Li Cunxian rest assured that he will be the leading general to cooperate with Li Congjing in the battle? Thinking about it this way, Li Yanchao's actions may have other profound meanings.

After Li Congjing finished speaking, Li Yanchao's spirit was greatly lifted, and he was about to say something, Li Congjing had already continued: "However, the Hundred Battles Army has just come to the clouds, and the whole army has a very urgent desire to fight. That being the case, why should the siege battle be divided into orders, there are only 3,000 defenders in Pingzhou, so I will attack from the north and south, and attack the city at the same time, so that it cannot take care of the beginning and the end! ”

"Military order: Tomorrow, Lu Long's army will attack the south gate, and the hundred battle army will attack the north gate!"

After speaking, Li Congjing waved his hand, "If the generals have no objections, go and prepare for yourself." ”

The people in the future have their own calculations in their hearts about how Li Congjing will arrange the siege order tomorrow, Li Congjing's arrangement is obviously beyond most people's expectations, these people look at each other, and those generals who expected Li Congjing to make such a decision, they all clasped their fists and said: "We will obey the orders of the military commander!" ”