Hearing that the Great Song Dynasty sent troops to the Northern Expedition, the Liao side reacted very quickly.

Xiao Xuan, who had just been promoted to the queen mother, immediately ordered Yelu, the king of the Southern Courtyard, to lead his troops to Zhuozhou to block the main force of the Song army on the East Road.

Xiao Xuan also ordered Tokyo to stay in Yelu Mo and only lead the army to aid Youzhou, while he himself had just led the newly enthroned Liao Emperor Yelu Longxu to lead tens of thousands of elite horsemen to reach the camel Luokou near Youzhou to support.

At the same time, Xiao Xuan then made Yelu Xuegu, the privy envoy of the Northern Yuan, the commander of the soldiers and horses of Shanxi, led the army to aid the mountain, blocked the eastward advance of the soldiers and horses of the Song Dynasty and the west, and ordered Lin Yaqinde to guard the coast of Pingzhou to prevent the Song army from attacking its flank from the sea.

The three Song armies were concurrent, and Shi Wei, as the medical envoy of the Hanlin Dynasty, led his imperial medical group and followed the Son of Heaven to the north.

The formal war between the two countries began in early March, when the Western Route Army marched north from the west entrance of Yanmen Pass, conquered Huan and Shuozhou, and then broke through Yingzhou and took Yunzhou in the north.

The middle route army defeated the flying fox, divided the troops into a section to surround Lingqiu, and defeated the Liao reinforcements at the flying fox with most of the troops, and directly took Wei.

In less than a month of fighting, the soldiers and horses of the Chinese and Western roads fought successively, and they had captured various important places behind the mountain.

When the soldiers and horses of the Chinese and Western Routes showed their skills, the Eastern Route Army commanded by Cao Bin was not idle, and his 100,000 soldiers and horses took less than two days to successfully conquer Zhuozhou.

Zhuozhou is located in the south of Youzhou, is the southern gateway of Youzhou, conquered this place, the Song army can go to Youzhou City for two or three days at most.

According to the original battle plan, Zhao Kuangyin planned to attack Youzhou with a three-way army and horses, but he didn't expect that Shizhuozhou would be conquered by Cao Bin so easily.

Faced with the new situation, Zhao Kuangyin temporarily adjusted the operational deployment and ordered Cao Bin to lead the north out of Zhuozhou and immediately launch an attack on Youzhou.

Liao's reinforcements are still on the way to Youzhou City, at this time Youzhou only Yelu slanted about 30,000 soldiers and horses, if you can take advantage of the enemy's lack of reinforcement, it is also a good strategy to use superior forces to take the lead in attacking Youzhou.

Zhao Kuangyin's improvisation decision is undoubtedly correct.

Zhao Kuangyin ordered Shi Wei to send this holy decree to the front line.

At present, the war ahead is in full swing, and what the injured soldiers need most is medical aid, Zhao Kuangyin feels that it is useless to keep Shi Wei by his side, it is better to send him to the front line before the surname Suo, and he can also save a few more soldiers' surnames.

Shi Wei got the king's order, and with the holy decree of the Son of Heaven, he rushed to Zhuozhou in the starry night.

At this time, less than four days had passed since Cao Bin captured Zhuozhou.

In the camp in the north of Zhuozhou, Shi Wei met this long-lost famous general.

Compared with when the Southern Tang Dynasty was pacified, Cao Bin has obviously been blessed for a long time, but his cautious demeanor has not changed at all.

When Cao Bin saw the holy decree brought by Shi Wei, he seemed a little surprised by the decision of the Son of Heaven to enter the army.

"The armies of the two routes of China and the West have not yet recovered the states of Shanhou, does Your Majesty really plan to attack Youzhou without waiting for the other two armies to come to meet?" Cao Bin looked a little hesitant.

Shi Wei said with a smile: "General Cao, although the lower officials don't know about soldiers, they have also heard the saying that 'soldiers are noble and fast', and now that Zhuozhou has been broken, Xia Guan feels that His Majesty's decision to attack Youzhou in a hurry is correct." ”

Cao Bin smiled slightly, did not speak, and seemed to feel that Shi Wei's sentence "soldiers are noble and fast" was suspected of being a layman's insider's words.

Shi Wei could see his thoughts, so he said: "If he hears that Zhuozhou has fallen, in order to prevent our soldiers from attacking Youzhou before his reinforcements arrive, he will definitely use the advantage of cavalry to disturb our army's food supply." At that time, once the grain road is cut off, more than 100,000 people of our army will be stationed in the land of Zhuozhou, if there is no food, the army's heart will collapse, this point, General Cao, have you ever thought about it? ”

Hearing Shi Wei's words, Cao Bin's expression changed slightly.

Shi Wei continued: "Therefore, instead of waiting here, it is better to take advantage of the fact that before Yelu Xian has made any moves, the army will go straight to the city of Youzhou, trap his army in the city, and make it impossible for him to divide troops and horses to invade my grain road." At that time, even if you capture Buyouzhou for a while, you can take advantage of the enemy's help to take advantage of the arrival of the copper wall and iron wall, and then wait for the rest of the two soldiers and horses to come to meet with peace of mind, isn't this the best of both worlds. ”

Although Shi Wei did not directly lead the troops to fight, over the years, he has participated in many southern and northern battles, and he also has some understanding of war tactics.

In addition, when he had nothing to do over the years, he often read military books as extracurricular reading, and by this time, in fact, his own military literacy was quite high.

Cao Bin is well versed in the art of war, and after listening to Shi Wei's analysis, he suddenly realized.

"Lord Shi, I didn't expect you to analyze this battle so thoroughly, which really surprised the old man." Cao Bin couldn't help but praise.

Shi Wei said humbly: "General Cao has passed the award, where does the subordinate know these ways, he has not been with the Son of Heaven recently, and he has been exposed to it a lot, so he said what he said just now."

Cao Bin nodded, read the holy decree again, and said: "Come on, pass on the old man's order, tomorrow morning, the whole army will be pulled out, and the whole army will take Youzhou." ”

At this time, the Song army had been recuperating for a long time, and it was the time when morale was strong.

Now that Zhuozhou has been lightly taken and won a good start, 100,000 soldiers are being aroused to war, and when they hear the news of marching towards Youzhou, they are naturally excited, and they are not used for mobilization.

So as soon as the next day dawned, the camps and camps opened one after another, along the plain road to the north, towards Youzhou City.

As Shi Wei had predicted, although Yelu had been prepared for the Song army's northern invasion, he did not expect that the gateway to Zhuozhou would fall so easily.

Shocked, Yelu was anxious to summon the generals of Youzhou, and decided to avoid fighting with the main force of the Song army.

However, no sooner had Jerod finished dispatching his troops than the scouts brought back shocking news.

The 100,000 troops of the Song army on the east road captured Zhuozhou in less than two days, and they quickly moved north, and the front of the mixed infantry and cavalry was only more than 20 miles away from the city of Nanjing.

Since Shi Jingtang ceded the sixteen states of Yanyun to the Khitans, for more than 40 years, the horseshoe of the Han people has never set foot in Youzhou for more than half a step.

The people here have long been accustomed to the rule of the Liao State, and when they heard that the soldiers and horses of the Great Song Dynasty suddenly arrived, the whole city was terrified for a while, and the people were panicked.

Garrisoned in Youzhou were the king of the Southern Liaoning Academy, Yelu Xianzhen, and the prime minister Han Derang, Han Derang was a Wenchen and advocated abandoning the city and retreating north, while Yelu Xianzhen strongly advocated holding on to wait for help.

Yelu slanted to hold the power of the army, and Han Derang could not make his own assertions, so he could only agree to defend to the death.

Yelu led 10,000 cavalry to garrison the Qingsha River in the north of Youzhou City, forming a solidarity with Youzhou, and Liuhan Derang led about 20,000 soldiers and horses to garrison the main city of Youzhou.

After the Song army arrived in Youzhou City, Cao Bin assigned his generals and launched a siege of Youzhou.

He himself led a main force of 60,000 to form an encirclement of Youzhou City, and at the same time ordered the deputy capital to deploy and lead an army of 40,000 to launch an attack on the Yelu Oblique Division on the first line of Qinghesha to cut off the horns of Youzhou.

The Battle of Youzhou began.

In this Northern Expedition, the Song army had long been ready to capture the fortified city, and the army carried a large number of siege equipment.

Cao Bin's army of 60,000 immediately launched a day and night attack on Youzhou City.

However, Youzhou used Nanjing, the Liao State, and the Liao people ran many cities, and the fortification of the city was far beyond the imagination of the Song army.

Cao Bin stormed for ten days, killing and wounding thousands of soldiers and horses, but no soldier was able to climb the head of Youzhou City.

Zhao Kuangyin, who was sitting in Xiongzhou, heard that Cao Bin couldn't attack for a long time, and his butt couldn't sit still, so he personally led 50,000 forbidden troops and rushed to the front line in Youzhou.

At the beginning of summer, the Song army gathered near Youzhou reached 150,000 people.

Zhao Kuangyin has personally experienced the "pain" brought to him by the long-term inability to attack Taiyuan City, and in Zhao Kuangyin's view, there is no bone in the world that is more difficult to gnaw than Taiyuan City.

However, when Zhao Kuangyin came to Youzhou City and personally presided over a series of onslaught on Youzhou City, he found that Taiyuan City was not his last nightmare.

This rectangular city with a wall three feet high, one zhang and five feet thick, a circumference of thirty-six miles, seven miles from east to west, and nine miles from north to south, her tenacity is far beyond Zhao Kuangyin's imagination.

After ten days of fierce attacks, Zhao Kuangyin was furious.

He decided to besiege the city three times and advance into the cave.

The so-called hole into the ground is to dig a tunnel directly under the city wall of Youzhou, hollow out all the underneath the city wall, support it with wooden stakes first, and then set fire to the wooden stakes when the hole is large enough.

As a result, when the stakes burn out, the unsupported wall below could collapse.

This is a big project, how can it be completed in ten days and half a month, Zhao Kuangyin can only persuade himself not to be in a hurry at this time, digging a hole while waiting for the news of the two armies behind the mountain.

Seven days later, Zhao Kuangyin received the news of the conquest of Yunzhou, which greatly encouraged him and all the Song troops.

This also means that one of the two cores in the sixteen states of Yanyun has been removed, leaving only the isolated city of Youzhou.

With the end of the battle behind the mountain, the soldiers and horses of the other two roads are rushing to Youzhou one after another to meet, and Zhao Kuangyin's idea of 300,000 troops attacking Youzhou is becoming a reality.

Just when the Song army of Zhulu was gathering under the city of Youzhou, on the grassland in the north of the Saibei, the 40,000 Liao cavalry led by Yelu Xiuge was in extreme movement.

Yelu Xiuge, under the order of Xiao Xuan, gathered the most elite 40,000 cavalry of the Liao State in the shortest possible time, and marched through the prairie in the middle of the day, heading towards the Han land.

The Liao State claims to have more than 300,000 iron cavalry, but its territory is vast, and the places that need to be divided and garrisoned are also very large, and it can gather 40,000 elite cavalry in such a short period of time, which is already the limit of the mobilization capacity of the Liao State.

Yelu Huge, who was speeding immediately, prayed in his heart: God bless me Daliao, the defenders of Youzhou, you must hold on, if Youzhou is lost, we Khitans will become the next Xiongnu, Turkic, and Uighur, and disappear forever in the legends......

(To be continued)