Fenzhou Post Station, far away three horses galloping. When he arrived at the post house, he flew and dismounted, but the horse was sweating profusely, and the legs of the four strong horses trembled suddenly. The knight on the horse dismounted, stumbled first, and was hurriedly held back by the people of the inn.

The people of the post house are well-trained, and some people bring warm salt water at the moment, and some people help them untie the blankets on their shoulders, and return to the room to urgently load the meat gan steamed buns and other easy-to-carry food, and some people take away the war horses, and lead three new horses with complete saddles, and the three military envoys who carry the cha small flag and carry the letter box obliquely take the scoop and drink it bitterly, at this time the people of the post house have tied the blanket on their shoulders, and the three people threw the scoop into the arms of the post envoy, turned around and took the reins of the horse, got on the horse, whipped hard, and galloped away again.

"Why are you in such a hurry, could it be that Xiazhou City has already been defeated?" A post soldier looked at the backs of the three messengers and said suspiciously.

"Snap", he received a slap on the back of the head from an old post man, and the post soldier groaned. Touching the back of his head, he said, "Uncle Zhou, what are you doing with me?" ”

"Who made you kid not have a brain?" Lao Yicheng scolded and muttered: "If they really beat Xiazhou City, such a big victory, no matter how tired they are, they will have to report loudly along the way, can they be so wizened?" According to me, I'm afraid I've lost the battle......"

"Can you?" The post soldier said with some disbelief: "The 100,000 troops of the imperial court, with the Xia country in Hexi, can we defeat General Pan?" ”

"The clay pot is difficult to break from the wellhead, and the general will inevitably die in battle," the old post man muttered: "I Zhou Dong has been a post soldier all my life, and these old eyes have not yet spent...... The big defeat. ”

"Smack!"

A top-grade torture kiln teacup that was round like a moon soul pendant and as light as a cloud was smashed by Zhao Guangyi, and the angry voice roared throughout the hall: "100,000 forbidden troops, 100,000 forbidden troops, I am well-equipped and well-trained 100,000 troops, just buried in his hands by Pan Zhongxun!" The remnants of the defeated army who returned to Fuzhou were only more than 20,000, and my Great Song Dynasty has never suffered such a defeat, and my Great Song generals have never suffered such defeats! Fiasco! This is a fiasco! Who allowed him to withdraw from the army without permission? If you make an assertion and lose your soldiers, you deserve death! ”

All the civil and military officers bowed their heads, silent, and no one dared to speak.

Zhao Guangyi angrily slapped the royal case. Stretched out his hand and pointed at Cao Bin, and shouted: "Cao Guohua, you are the privy council, you say, what crime should Pan Mei be guilty of?" ”

When the emperor asked, Cao Bin couldn't help but speak, he took the wat out of the class, and said in a deep voice: "Shengshang, Pan Mei's performance Chen Jun's report has arrived, and the minister has carefully read it, although Pan Mei was defeated, it was not because he advocated the withdrawal of the army. In fact, because our army is adventurous, the battle line is extended, from Hengshan to Xiazhou hundreds of miles of wasteland, there is no fortress and fortress, reckless snow field, the enemy cavalry goes back and forth, comes and goes freely, cut off my grain road, rob me of baggage, the front of 100,000 troops has not been held for a long time, Pan Mei immediately decided. Resolutely retreating from the army is really a last resort! ”

He only said half of it, Zhao Guangyi's face turned red, and he ventured? Why did the Song army rush in? He had been urging Pan Mei to advance quickly for three days in a row, Cao Bin said this, could it be that Pan Mei's loss of troops had become his responsibility?

Zhao Guangyi said angrily: "Sophistry, pure sophistry, I only ask you, Pan Mei did not follow the edict, and withdrew the army without authorization, so that the enemy ambushed and lost the army, what should he be guilty of!" ”

Cao Bin had fine beads of sweat on the wings of his nose and said: "The army should be governed strictly, the rewards and punishments are clear, Pan Mei lost the battle, and should be severely punished." ”

Zhao Guangyishen had just slowed down, and Cao Bin's tone changed, and he said again: "But the minister thinks that the rewards and punishments are clear, and they must also be measured. If there is no scale, it will breed arrogance and permissiveness; If the punishment is unreasonable, it will be rude, biased, and the original intention of reward and punishment will be lost. The rewards and punishments are reasonable, so that people can be convinced, and they can also be jǐng especially others. ”

Zhao Guangyi's face turned cold, and he said, "Cao Guohua, are you teaching me a lesson?" ”

"Don't dare!" Cao Bin's waist bent again, and his voice was more respectful, but he still said stubbornly: "The minister carefully read the military report, and asked himself, the minister was Pan Mei, and the only choice at that time was for the strong man to relieve his wrist and withdraw immediately." Even if you know that there are traps on the way out. ”

Zhao Guangyi sneered: "Just quit the army? Sending 100,000 troops into the mouth of the tiger and escaping from a mere 20,000 people, this is also called a strong man to relieve his wrist, a joke! Big joke! This is throwing the whole body to others, and only one hand escapes! ”

Cao Bin's body owed again, almost at a ninety-degree angle: "Holy Lord, the minister thinks that it is not the whole body that is broken, but still a hand." ”

Lu Duoxun, Zhang Xun, Xue Juzheng, Lu Yuqing, Luo Kedi, Dang Jin and others all pinched a cold sweat for Cao Bin, but Zhao Guangyi laughed angrily when he heard it. He didn't get angry immediately, but slowly sat back on the dragon chair and said in a cold voice: "80,000 people are only counted as one hand, and 20,000 people are considered to have retreated?" Okay, tell me about it, and let me understand. ”

"Yes!" Cao Bin slowly straightened his waist, and he struggled to keep talking like this: "Shengshang, General Pan's 100,000 troops gathered under the city of Xiazhou and trapped Yang Hao, and his military camp stretched hundreds of miles away from Hengshan, all of which were reckless snowfields. It was the battlefield of the cavalry of the Xia Kingdom. If General Pan did not make a quick decision and immediately withdraw his troops, then it would be necessary for the rear to constantly carry grain and grass to supply the needs of the front army.

In this way, the grain, grass, ordnance, and armor military uniforms can only continue to fall into the hands of the Xia army in batches, and the Xia army borrows the property of our Song State to feed the war with war, and continues to grow. The front army could not be replenished, and it was cold and hungry, and the wind and snow were enough to trap the 100,000 army alive under the city of Xiazhou, and even 20,000 people would not survive by then.

Or, General Pan could report the situation of the former enemy to the Shengshang, and the imperial court ordered the defenders of Linfu to respond, or send the army again to ensure that they retreated calmly, however, the return to and from Beijing was long-lasting, and then the army was transferred to the expedition, which was not within reach, and when the army arrived, it was already the season of warm snow and snow, how could the surplus food in the army support it for so long?

It is also not advisable to use the defenders of the two states of Lin Fu to help. The defenders of the two states of Linfu are limited, and with a limited number of troops to defend the fortified city, they can resist ten times the enemy, and the enemy has no opportunity to take advantage of it. As soon as the defenders of Linfu came out, the enemy rode vertically and horizontally, out of the turbidity wheel river in the north, and out of the Mida Cave in the south. Until then. The back road has been extinct, and the Baili Snow Field is allowed to be ravaged by enemy cavalry, not only the 100,000 troops of Pan Mei will be lost in Hexi, but the two states of Linfu will fall into the hands of the enemy again.

This is only the minister's situation in Hexi, and the actions of the Liao State have not yet been considered. Liao suddenly moved to Datong 40,000 iron horses, away from my Yanmen, morning and evening, eyeing the tiger, ill-intentioned, if I send out a large army in the middle of the country to be bound in Hexi can not be dragged out, or the two states of Linfu are in mourning, Yanmen Pass flank in front of the Xia army, what the Liao will do, it is not expected, but it can be expected that they will not move, once dispatched, our Song State will fall into a comprehensive passivity, because of the battle in a corner of Hexi, and the whole country is in the quagmire. Shengshang, this is a dead game set up by Yang Hao, and it will not die. ”

Zhao Guangyi was furious, and the most hated place was that Pan Mei did not ask for a decree and made an assertion, if he really brought back the 100,000 troops safely, but he lost his troops and returned defeated, if he knew in advance, he calmly arranged here, transferred troops and sent generals, how could it not lead to a fiasco, listening to Cao Bin's analysis, he couldn't help but break out in a cold sweat.

However, when he saw Cao Bin's face clearly, his heart moved, and he suddenly realized another question: "Cao Bin is speaking so hard for Pan Mei purely out of a public heart?" Hmph, it doesn't seem to be so harmonious between them, right? These old ministers of the former dynasty, no matter what their personal relationship is, are now in a group......"

No wonder Zhao Guangyi thinks so, Pan Mei has the merit of the dragon, when the first emperor was there, he was a confidant, Cao Bin was received from the Later Zhou army after Zhao Kuangyin sat in the world, and did not participate in the Chenqiao Mutiny, and Cao Bin's mother (aunt) was the concubine of the Later Zhou Taizu, there is such a two-layer relationship, although he is all-round in civil and military affairs, and has high moral character, but he was not reused by Zhao Kuangyin at first.

Later, Zhao Kuangyin has sat firmly in the country, and gradually reused Cao Bin, Cao Bin has never been integrated into Zhao Kuangyin's hero group, the formation of factions in the army is very complicated, but it is not a battle side by side, drink together, even if it is the same faction, so although Cao Bin's position is getting higher and higher, and he even sat on the head of Pan Mei, but Zhao Kuangyin once had the merit of the dragon Those arrogant soldiers and fierce generals only respected him and did not obey him.

Cao Bin also knows this, so he is only a gentleman's friend with the meritorious group of the first emperor, but now it's good, the reckless man who has not jumped out to express his dissatisfaction, Cao Bin has done his best to drag Pan Meikai, these old generals are obviously wary of their own wanton appointment of newcomers and squeezing out the old ministers of the previous dynasty.

As soon as he thought of this, Zhao Guangyi suddenly became worried, equivalent to the defeat of Hexi, he paid more attention to the movement of the forces in the DPRK and China, the great cause of the Song Dynasty, the loss of 100,000 troops, give him a year of hard work to recover his vitality, but if the veterans who control the military power in the DPRK and China have different hearts, once something happens, it will be a civil strife, the civil strife will not only affect the time, but the clean-up and investigation after the event may last for several years, the most hurtful vitality, and most of the emperors who have been emperors for five generations have not died at the hands of outsiders, and the ten ** are all killed by the generals under their own hands, Instead, this is just what happened in the first few years, how can Zhao Guangyi not be afraid.

Lu Duoxun didn't get angry when he saw Zhao Guangyi hear Cao Bin's words, but pondered, his face was uncertain and he didn't know what he was thinking, he was the best at figuring out the intentions, thought about it carefully, consciously grasped the pulse of the official family, and then went out and said: "Holy Lord, what Lord Cao said also has a certain truth. General Pan is a famous general of our dynasty, and in the past, 100,000 soldiers swept through the 300,000 Han troops in southern Fujian and captured its monarch, which was also a great achievement.

This defeat in Hexi was an inherent mistake in General Cao's army, but our dynasty has never had a precedent for winter warfare in the north, so the lack of experience and the burden of natural disasters are the main cause. The battle of Hexi can be regarded as a grass performance of my northern expedition to the west, summing up the lessons of it, coming to rì and sending heavenly soldiers again, and attacking the northern Liao and Western Xia, it will inevitably be invincible. However, Pan Mei lost the battle, and this punishment still has to be punished, and the minister thought that Pan Mei could be demoted to the third-level army and made him guilty......"

"Hahahaha......" Zhao Guangyi laughed, shook his head and said: "I listened to Guohua's words, and I suddenly realized, what is Pan Mei's crime?" It's all because I misheard Wang Jien's greedy words, and I almost sinned and made a hero. If you have heard it, you will be happy, I still have it, Pan Zhongwen should not be punished, he should be rewarded! ”

Lu Duoxun slapped the horse's hooves, and just as he didn't know how to turn back, a little eunuch tiptoed up the imperial steps, handed a thing to the waiter who was standing on duty, knew Gu Ruoli, and whispered a few words to him, Gu Ruoli was taken aback, and shouted: "What do you say?" ”

He shouted a little louder, although Zhao Guangyi was smiling and talking, in fact, he hated it in his heart, but he felt that the old ministers of the previous dynasty were now unprecedentedly united, and he didn't dare to be happy and angry, and suddenly heard Gu Ruoli scream, and the anger he couldn't help but vent on his head, Zhao Guangyi slapped the imperial case and scolded him: "You bold dog eunuch, above the Golden Palace, you are also a person like you who can make a loud noise!" ”

Gu Ruoli was shocked, and hurriedly knelt down on the steps, and said tremblingly: "The slave and maid suddenly heard the urgent report from Xichuan, so that they lost their voices, disturbed the saints, and made a noise in the hall, guilty, guilty. ”

"Huh? Xichuan urgent, what's the matter? ”

Gu Ruoli hurriedly held up a report with both hands, and the little chamberlain who was holding the dust next to the imperial case hurriedly took it and handed it to Zhao Guangyi, Zhao Guangyi opened it and looked at it, and couldn't help but be furious: "...... The bandits broke through the Qionglai Pass, drove straight in, and sent troops to Chengdu. In order to protect the fundamentals, the ministers were forced to withdraw from Chengdu and retreat north to Hanzhou.

Chengdu fell, Xichuan shook, the bandits were able to get the Chengdu treasury to support, the momentum was great, and the wealthy merchants and wealthy households were confiscated, and the wealth of the gentry and officials was scattered among the people, so that the officials and gentry were terrified and had no place to die. Those who are attached to the rebels are like snow rolling groups, responding to every call, and now their strength is probably 800,000. The rebels are all tattooed on their cheeks, saying 'Yingyun Xiongjun', united as one, and not afraid of death.

Bandits are prosperous, indulging in Xichuan, now rì take a certain state, Ming rì trap a certain county, the wind is blowing, how to sweep the easy. In the hands of the ministers, only Huai'an was left with an army, which was insufficient for self-protection and powerless to suppress bandits. Xichuan appeased Wan Songling, Chengdu Zhizhou Zhou Weiyong died a hundred worships! ”

Pity this Xichuan pacification made Wan Daren, Chengdu Zhizhou Zhou Daren is really helpless, the enemy is too weak, then they lost Chengdu and deserved to die, so they had to exaggerate the righteous army infinitely, in fact, they have no way to fight, the imperial court has been too heavy on Xichuan's harsh taxes and miscellaneous taxes, in recent years, it has been either drought or flood, and the harvest is small, and the rebel army has a huge mass base, no matter where it is fought, there are always people who can't survive.

And after the Song army defeated the Shu State, it looted everywhere, killed the prisoners, and the reputation was too stinky, not to mention, because the terrain of the Bashu region was dangerous, in order to prevent rebellion, after the Song State defeated the Shu State, most of the city walls and moats of the states and counties were razed to the ground, Xichuan has a total of 29 states and counties, leaving only Yizhou (Chengdu), Zizhou, Meizhou, Suizhou four cities, and the city defense measures are demolished, and a city does not even have a city wall, how to resist the enemy?

At the beginning of the fall of Chengdu, the two local governors of Wen Yiwu still wanted to hide it, because in the past, no matter where the rebels fell, they would leave immediately after looting, and then flee back to the mountains, so they looked at the rebels and left, and when they returned to Chengdu, they said that they waved their troops to fight back, Chengdu was lost and recovered, and it was better to report to the official's house.

Who knew that Tong Yu, the leader of the rebel army, listened to Wang Xiaobo's suggestion, opened the granary to help the victims, recruited troops and horses to attack everywhere, and his prestige was greatly boosted for a while. In the past, they robbed and left, the common people just felt that they had a bad breath for them, this time the move of opening a warehouse to give food to the people won the hearts of the people, and there were countless people who voted for KAO, although there are no 800,000 people at present, in fact, there are always 300,000 or 400,000, but this is all the family defection, if you really want to talk about it, there are not many people who can fight.

Wan Songling and Zhou Weiyong didn't care so much, not only did they count these people as soldiers, but also doubled them, which made people rush to Beijing.

Zhao Guangyi listened to the anger from his heart, and he reached out to grab the Duanxi ancient inkstone of "Purple Flower Spitting Rainbow in the middle of the night", and slammed it to the top of the golden brick royal steps: "Wan Songling, Zhou Weiyong, abandon the city and flee, avoid bandits like a tiger, and deserve death!" ”

***************************************************

When Second Uncle Zhao smashed pots and bowls on the Golden Palace, Yang Hao had already arrived in Hengshan and patrolled the three armies.

Accompanied by Yang Jiye and Zhang Chongwei, Yang Hao patrolled various fortresses along the line of Hengshan, and met with the leaders of the Qiang tribes in Hengshan, praising and rewarding them for their position of not being vassals of the Song army.

A few days later, Yang Hao came to Fengtai Valley, the northernmost point of the Hengshan defensive line, which was the junction of Xia, Liao and Fuzhou, which was now in the hands of the Song army. The Xia army is also leaning on the mountain to build a village, and it is heavily guarded.

Standing in the cottage and looking north, a snowfield is the territory of Liao, a river winds from the snowfield into the summer realm, this river is the turbidity wheel river, which reaches the turbidity wheel river in the territory of the Xia country. By this time, the river had frozen over and had become a huge ice dragon.

Yang Jiye pointed out: "Shengshang, that side was originally the Fengtai Zhai fortress of the Zhejia, and now there are three battalions of the Song Army, and the troops deployed here are roughly the same, and the guards are the dogs Yanxun, to the north, it is the territory of the Liao State, this land is relatively fertile, at the turn of the summer, the Liao people will have tribes to graze here, but at this time, the weather is cold, and there is no one there." ”

Yang Hao nodded and said: "The Song Kingdom has suffered this big loss, and it will definitely not stop there, even if it is for show, it will inevitably have to wave the army again, but this battle has been fought until now, and if we continue to dance with guns and sticks, they can't afford to fight, we can't afford to fight, we really have to do everything, but it will be cheaper for the Khitans." Everyone sits down and fights with my mouth, I'm afraid it's the only choice, you are a military general, just defend Hengshan for me, this spitting thing, I will come by myself. ”

Yang Jiye laughed when he heard this, and at this moment, the soldier standing on the watchtower on the high place suddenly raised his horns and whined, and the well-trained soldier immediately ran out of the barracks, and rushed to the fortifications in armor. ”

Zhang Chongwei nervously dragged Yang Hao away, but Yang Hao held his hand, Yang Hao squinted his eyes and looked at the Song camp, there was no movement from the Song camp, but as soon as the horn sounded, the soldiers over there also rushed to the outpost fortifications, ready to resist the enemy.

At this time, the soldiers on the watchtower used flags to wave the flag below, and Yang Jiye couldn't help but be surprised when he saw it: "The enemy is coming from the north?" ”

Yang Hao stood and looked, and after a moment's effort, he saw a water-like army swarming on the northern snowfield, and in a moment he arrived at this triangle, and for a time the valley was waving flags, and people shouted horses, among which there was a big flag, on which two lines of big characters were written in Khitan and Chinese: "Yelu Huge, the king of the North Courtyard!" ”

Yang Hao's jaw suddenly became a little sour, and the feeling of Brother Yelu Hugh greeting him with a pair of big iron fists seemed to be back.