"That's right!" Liu Sheng's tone was very firm, he took out a willow stick and said: "Look, I have found the rope that I tied during the day, the bottom of this river is all gravel bottom, and the deepest part of the water is more than two feet deep, which is the place to cross the river!" ”

Zhou Ping took the willow stick under his hand, and sure enough, the length of the stick soaked in water was only a little more than two feet, he nodded, and ordered in a deep voice: "Light the fire and cross the river!" “

The convoy was immediately busy, people quickly lit torches, and cut bundles of weeds from both sides of the road to lay under the wheels to prevent the wheels from sinking into the wet and soft soil on the river bank, and pulled a few thick ropes at the crossing point, and when everything was ready to stop, Liu Sheng directed the first car to slowly drive into the river. Zhou Ping stood on the river bank, with the help of the flickering firelight to look at the flickering figures and cars in the river, the heavy gasping sound of people and livestock was heard in his ears, in order to reduce the load to prevent the vehicle from falling into the riverbed, when crossing the river, part of the goods on the cart should be unloaded, and moved to the opposite bank by manpower or horses. From time to time, people and animals stumbled and fell into the river, but they quickly got back on their feet with the help of their companions. Zhou Ping looked at the sky a little anxiously, trying to judge how long it would take until dawn by the constellations, but the night sky was pitch black, and he couldn't see anything, and suddenly his forehead was cold, and Li Bao's voice came from his ears.

"General, it's raining!"

"Hmm!" Zhou Ping nodded, and he could see the crackling sound of burning torches a few feet away, which was the sound of rain falling on the burning pine Mingzi.

"The rain is getting heavier, so take shelter from you in the carriage!" Li Bao continued.

"No need!" Zhou Ping shook his head: "The rain is good." The heavier the rain, the less likely it is that the Liao people will come out to inspect, and I hope that it will rain for a few days in a row, so that we can live in Zhuozhou! He stepped forward and shouted loudly to the people who were struggling in the river: "It's raining, the Khitan people must be resting in the house, everyone work hard, cross the river, everyone has a reward of fifty yuan!" ”

Zhuozhou is located in the central part of Hebei Province. After the Later Jin Dynasty ceded the Sixteen Prefectures of Yanyun. This place became the front line of the confrontation between the Central Plains Dynasty and the Liao. It and Yizhou are like two door gods, holding the south gate of Yanjing. When the clouds of war gradually shrouded the sky over the land of Yanyun, the small court of Yanjing finally made a decision - to take Yelu Dashi as the capital of the southwest road, and lead 2,000 Khitan cavalry to camp in the new city of Zhuozhou.

Newcastle. County office.

Rain falls on the tiles. A slight noise is made. Yelu Dashi sat in front of several cases. Looking at a letter in front of an oil lamp, judging by his face, the contents of the letter were not good news. His deputy, Xiao Jilu, saw Yelu Dashi carefully put the finished letter in front of the oil lamp and lit it, and asked in a low voice, "What good news does Yanjing have?" ”

"Good news?" Yelu Dashi smiled bitterly: "Where is there any good news at this time, no news is good news." The Jin people refused my request to surrender their land. ”

"Hey!" Xiao Jilu sighed: "Don't you even want us to offer this Yanjing City to others?" ”

"Let's think about using Yanjing's fat as bait to lure the Jin people to break the alliance with the Southern Dynasty, and then take advantage of it!" A sarcastic smile appeared on Yelu Dashi's face: "But people are not stupid, they will definitely fall into your trap." That Wanyan Aguda understands very well, if you don't look at our Da Liao and swallow your last breath for a day, you won't tear your face with the Southern Dynasty for a day! ”

Xiao Jilu sighed, bowed his head and said nothing, it turned out that as the Song side's intention to start a war became more and more obvious, the Yanjing small court finally resorted to the last resort, sending envoys to beg the Jin people to surrender, trying to lure the Jin people south, break the alliance with the Song army, and start a war between the two powers, and then the Yanjing small court could win a space to survive.

"Da Shi Linya, what do you say you should do next?" After half a ring, Xiao Jilu asked.

"The only way to do this now is to fight with the Southern Dynasty first!" Yelu Dashi replied: "If you win the war, you can rely on this to sue for peace, at least for the status of a vassal state." “

"What if I lose?"

"What if you lose?" Yelu Dashi sighed: "If you lose the battle, then you can only go back and forth from where our ancestors did!" ”

"That's all there is to it!" Xiao Jilu sighed: "If you want to fight, you have to fight quickly, it's almost June, but, but-" Speaking of this, this strong Khitan man sat down, his face full of sorrow.

Yelu Dashi didn't speak, he knew very well what Xiao Jiluna meant halfway through. Generally speaking, the season of the Song army's Northern Expedition will be picked after June, for the simple reason that the summer grain has been harvested at this time, and the autumn grain has been sown (all the time here is the lunar calendar). The Song army could recruit enough peasants to serve as people's husbands, and there were plenty of seedlings and crops that were about to ripen in the fields, so they didn't have to worry about either the soldiers' rations or the forage for the livestock. And if the time drags on, it will also help Tong Guan strengthen the training of the large army at hand, but it has not yet been run-in. For the Liao army, it is disadvantageous to continue to delay, through the mobilization of the Khitans around Youzhou from the Xi Department in front of the mountain and behind the mountain, Yeluchun (actually Xiao Gan) has an army of more than 50,000 people on hand (excluding the Changsheng army), but the existing civil power of the small court of Yanjing is simply not enough to maintain such a large army for a long time, such as the newly built "thin army" made those Han officials complain, the only way to solve this problem is to start a war quickly and move the battlefield to the side of the Southern Dynasty, Loot was used in lieu of military pay. But neither Yeluchun nor Xiao Puxian had the determination to start the battle - otherwise they would not have given Yelu Dashi only 2,000 cavalry to enter Tunxincheng, which was clearly just a posture to prevent the Song people from attacking, and they were not the kind of true heroes who fought their way out of a desperate situation.

"I have a way, I have a way to make His Majesty decide to go to war!" Yelu Dashi suddenly shouted loudly.

"What?" Xiao Jilu was stunned: "What method?" ”

"Didn't that Tong Guan recruit Yan people to come down with a big banner? I will plan and send cavalry to patrol along Baigou, as long as I encounter the Han people who have fled south, I will press to the river and behead them, and see how the Song army is good! ”

"That's a good plan!" Xiao Jilu smiled, and then asked, "Then what if Tong Guan ignores it?" ”

"Then select some sergeants, disguise themselves as Han people who have fled south, and take the opportunity to attack the enemy camp, anyway, as long as the Song army moves, we can ask the king of the four armies to lead the troops south!"

"Good plan, good plan!" Xiao Jilu smiled: "Da Shi Linya, you really have a way!" ”

"Someone came, sent an order to go down, sent a remote blocker to inspect near Baigou, and found that there were Han people who fled south, all of them were arrested, and they were taken to the Song people's fortress during the day to behead the public!"

On the north bank of Baigou, Baihedian.

After a night's trekking, by the next morning, Zhou Ping and his party had crossed Baigou and arrived at a small village about ten miles north of Baigou, the residents of which had already fled, leaving only an abandoned village. In order to avoid being discovered by the Liao rangers, Liu Sheng suggested resting and eating in the village during the day, and then going on the road in the evening, preparing to cross the border area between the two countries and then resume the normal itinerary. After eating some dry food, the exhausted people lay down to rest, and only the people on duty stood guard under the big locust tree at the entrance of the village.

As the highest-ranking person in the team, Zhou Ping naturally occupied the best house in the village, and there was even an intact earthen kang in the house. But he didn't sleep calmly, he slept on the kang for about half an hour before he got up and walked around the village, if according to his original intention, he wanted to pass through this dangerous area as quickly as possible, no one knows better than him what kind of bloody battle is about to break out here in the next few months, as long as people with a little military common sense know that before the outbreak of such a big war, the generals of both sides will send a large number of sentry horses to explore the roads, rivers, and terrain of the battlefield to prepare for the upcoming battle, but in the end Liu Sheng still convinced himself.

"General, we are now smugglers, not cavalry. If the animals are not allowed to rest and the vehicles are not repaired, the animals pulling the carts will die and we will have to throw away the 'goods' on the carts. As for the sentinels of the Liao, I know how to deal with them! ”

Zhou Ping's mind resurfaced the confident appearance of the thirty-seven or eighteen-year-old man with a high nose and deep eyes and brown eyes, and when he asked him, "What if you can't deal with them?" At that time, Liu Sheng replied with a smile: "Then the bow and knife will see the kung fu, did the general choose this way, do you still want the wife to live a peaceful life?" ”

"Yes! The road I chose was not a peaceful road in the first place! At this time, Zhou Ping couldn't help laughing: "But as long as the people of the Central Plains can be peaceful, like the tragic situation in Liaodong and Jiangnan, I don't want to see it again!" ”

"General, general!" Li Bao rushed in quickly from the outside, and said in a low voice: "The sentry at the entrance of the village has seen the cavalry of the Liao people, it should be far away!" ”

"Far away?" Zhou Ping's face immediately became gloomy, he jumped off the earthen kang, Li Bao hurriedly handed over the waist knife and coat, and asked in a low voice: "Do you want to send the armor bow and crossbow, if you tear your face, you can be prepared!" ”

Zhou Ping hesitated, in addition to the two hundred stone salt and the miscellaneous food on the road, there were also one hundred and fifty sets of iron leaf armor, fifty divine arm bows, and some other weapons hidden in the carriage. These are all specially allocated to him by Tong Guan for the sake of his last great work. But in order to pretend to be a smuggler, Zhou Ping did not fully arm his men.

"Pick twenty old brothers, hide in the house with the bow of the divine arm, and wait for my orders!"

"Whoa!" (To be continued......)