The marshal led the main force south to take the north court, and the supervisor Zhao Li led the rest of the army to defend the Western Liao, but everyone found that the supervisor seemed to be a little out of tune, he didn't care about the affairs of the army, and did not renovate the city to prepare for war, and only took a dozen personal soldiers out of the city to hunt every day, but his skills were really not good, and he only brought back some gadgets such as hares and wild ducks, which were estimated to be not enough for them to eat a meal, but the prison army was still happy and tired, and went out of the city to hunt every morning and evening.

The prison army doesn't care about the things in the camp, everyone has herded the sheep, and they want to do whatever they want! The Song army is better, after all, they have been strictly constrained by military discipline since the first day of enlistment, and they have become accustomed to it, so they naturally dare not do anything out of the ordinary, that is, sneak out of the camp to drink a small wine, and learn to supervise the army in groups to go hunting by the lake. And their co-followers are much bolder, in their opinion, looting the defeated is a matter of course, eating and drinking for nothing, and robbing by force is just pediatrics, but they are afraid of the harsh military law of the Song army, and they dare not do those things of murder and arson, rape and plunder, who knows if they will settle accounts after the autumn!

For a time, this fairy land in the desert was made into a miasma by the occupying army, and the locals fled one after another, hoping that they would get out of the country quickly. The caravans would rather detour than stay in Yanbo City, but hide as far as they can. Some 'upright people' of the Song army were deeply worried about the inaction of the prison army, and at first they were good at persuasion, but they did not expect the prison army to say that everyone went on an expedition to the west, and they suffered such a big crime on the way, and fought so many battles, so they should let everyone relax and not be too harsh.

The connivance of the supervising army to undermine military discipline caused dissatisfaction among some people in the army, who believed that this was Zhao Li's lack of experience in leading troops at the grassroots level. On weekdays, it is okay to talk about troops on paper, but as soon as it enters the battlefield, it exposes its weakness of having no way to control and being powerless. The only way to win the hearts of the army is by indulging the soldiers. But some people don't think so, they think that the prison must have other intentions in doing so. Most of them didn't hold back any good fart. The people who made this judgment were basically middle- and lower-level officers from the Datong Lecture and Martial Arts Hall and the Xijing Lecture Martial Hall, and they still retained great trust in the former instructors.

In today's Great Song Army, the prestige of Zhao Ta, the founder of the new army and the undefeated God of War Emperor, is needless to say, in addition to him is Zhao Ren and Zhao Yong, Zhao Yan and others, most of them are convinced by the soldiers in the army who won the bloody battle with a gun and a knife, and what can be compared with them is Zhao Li, who rarely charges into battle in person, because at this time, more than half of the middle and lower-level officers in the Song army have to call 'teacher' when they see him.

Zhao Li began to preside over the teaching team in the army after expanding the army in Hedong, and later was responsible for the establishment of the Datong Lecture Hall. A large number of officers were trained for the New Song Army. But his prestige does not only come from this, he also has a rigorous academic attitude, especially his profound military theoretical foundation and the application of new tactics have unique views, it is not an exaggeration to call him the first Confucian general of the Great Song Dynasty, naturally he has also won the respect of the students, and everyone believes that as long as there is a chance, their teachers will become a generation of famous generals.

It is true that he did not come to the front line in person, but it cannot erase his merits in assisting the emperor's command. In a series of campaigns conducted by the Song army. It is often the emperor who asks questions, and from the initial battle setting, to the specific battle plan and the deployment of troops, many specific arrangements are made by Zhao Li, a senior staff member, which requires him to not only understand the characteristics of both the enemy and us. Moreover, it can judge the situation and arrange appropriate tactics and deploy troops.

It was precisely because Zhao Li had extensive 'connections' and coordination and command ability in the army that Zhao Ta transferred him to Hedong as a pacification envoy in this personnel adjustment, because most of the backbone of the new army formed by the recovery of Dading and Linhuang were in the Hedong Army. Too much transfer caused the Hedong army to be unstable, and he was sent over to stabilize the army's morale and restore its vitality. Zhao Li also lived up to the emperor's trust and completed the task. The formation of the Western Expeditionary Army to use it as a supervisory army is not only because most of the troops are from Hedong, but also because the prestige of the high favor parachuted here is slightly insufficient. It just so happens that Zhao Li can make up for his shortcomings, and once there is a change, he can also stabilize the morale of the army and take on the heavy responsibility of continuing to complete the western expedition.

In the leisurely days, when everyone was guessing whether their prison guards were 'convulsive' or incompetent, suddenly the horn of the emergency assembly sounded, and the heralds in the marshal's mansion also rushed to the camp of the coordinated army scattered all over the city, informing the leaders of the various armies to come to discuss the matter......

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Xiao Hanlira, the king of the Sixth Academy of Western Liao, once again led his troops out of Alashankou and into Gaochang, but his mood was very heavy, and he was a little lacking in confidence to defeat the Song army, but this was by no means afraid, but out of instinct.

More than 20 years ago, Xiao Hanlira accompanied Yelu Dashi to defend Nanjing, Liao, during which he participated in the battle against the invading Song army, and they defeated the Song army of 200,000 with less than 30,000 horses, and they were simply vulnerable. In recent years, although he was far away in the Western Regions, he also heard some news of the Song Dynasty intermittently, which not only broke the rampant Jurchens, but also recovered the Central Plains, captured the four capitals of the homeland, and continued to expand to the surrounding areas.

What made Xiao Hanli even more puzzled was that the Song army actually had the ability to launch a westward expedition, crossed the thousand-mile Gobi Desert, defeated the blockade of the Divination Department and the Naiban Army, and crossed the frozen Altai Mountains in winter. And this road he walked many years ago, and he is deeply aware of the difficulties and dangers. At that time, he led 70,000 cavalry to the east to the Jin Dynasty in order to restore the country, but in the desert encountered a storm, and a plague broke out in the army, most of the cattle and horses were killed, and the materials were exhausted, so they had to retreat halfway, and they did not even see the face of the Jurchens. In Xiao Hanlira's opinion, the Song army was able to successfully reach Gaochang, although there was an element of luck in it, but the strength and combat effectiveness it showed were enough to show that it was no longer the vulnerable Song army in the past.

And now the situation facing Xiliao is also very tense. Yelu Dashi left the Central Plains and decided to set up another gate, establish a base in the city of Kedun and claim the king. Then it developed westward and was called "Juer Khan" in Yemil, which was the founding of the country. After the founding of the country, it launched a westward expedition to expand to Central and West Asia, and finally established its capital in Husi Luduo. However, their neighbors did not welcome their arrival and were full of hostility, not only because of their expansion strategy, but also because of their differences in faith.

The earliest Khitans originally believed in primitive shamanism, and after coming into contact with the Han land, the Khitan upper class gradually accepted Buddhism. Islam is prevalent in Central and Western Asia, and now a Buddhist country has suddenly emerged, and all Islamic countries, large and small, are greatly annoyed, but they can't defeat the Liao army, so they can only smear Western Liao, calling them "Hara Khitan" or "Black Khitan".

In the continuous expansion of Western Liao, the Seljuk Sultan Sanjar felt a huge and fundamental threat from Western Liao, so he prepared to send troops against Western Liao this year on the pretext of helping his subjects restore the country, and called on neighbors of the same faith to wage war against Liao. The kings of Khorasan, Sigistan, Ghazna, Mazanland, and Ghul, who also felt threatened, accepted the invitation and joined the coalition army of Sanjar Sultan, gathering a strong cavalry corps of more than 100,000 men and preparing to wage war.

At this moment, he received a request for help from Gaochang, saying that the Song army had crossed the Altai Mountains into Gaochang and captured Yanbo City, and went south to attack Beiting. The situation has become more serious, the Seljuk Empire has sharpened its knives, and if it divides its forces to rescue Gaochang, it will inevitably disperse its forces. Victory, it's okay; If it is defeated, the Song army will definitely not give up, and will inevitably use this as an excuse to send troops to fight. In that case, Western Liao will face the dilemma of being attacked by the enemy on its belly and back, and it will be questionable whether it can continue to gain a foothold here under the attack of the two great powers.

Accordingly, at the court meeting to discuss whether to send troops to Gaochang, Xiao Hanlira suggested postponing the dispatch of troops to mediate and delay time, and then send troops to expel the Song army after repelling the Seljuks. Some people also think that although there were conflicts between the Song and Liao countries in the past, there was also a period of peace for a hundred years. And now the emperor of the Song Dynasty has married the princess of Shu of Liao, and treats the Liao royal family well, reuses the relics, and the two countries have a common enemy, they can join forces to destroy Jin and restore the country, and they should not meet each other in order to tear their faces apart for Gaochang.

However, Yelu Dashi rejected the advice of the courtiers, thinking that in the process of founding the country, the Turquoise and Naiman tribes among the Tuque people had given great help, and the Tuque people had great power in the court, especially the soldiers in the army were mainly Tuque people. The Song army defeated two tribes on the way to the west, leaving them on the verge of extinction, and if they insisted on making peace with the Song, they might cause dissatisfaction among the Tuque people and cause civil strife.

Moreover, although Gao Chang betrayed repeatedly, he was weak enough to pose a substantial threat to Western Liao. The Song Dynasty is different, whether it was in the past or is still a big country, and after its re-rise, it is even more prosperous, and being a neighbor with it has always been a trouble. At the same time, in Yelu Dashi's impression, the Song Dynasty is not a good thing, they can destroy the hundred-year-old brotherly alliance for their own selfishness, unite the Jurchens, and stick a knife in their back when the Liao State needs help the most, and now it is strong, who dares to guarantee that they did not have the intention of annexing themselves in this western expedition.

Later, Yelu Dashi believed that the Seljuks were still in the stage of mobilizing troops to demonstrate against him, and the cold weather was not conducive to the war, and the two sides would not fight for a while. It is better to take advantage of the fact that the Song army has not had time to rest and cannot be replenished, and when it is at its weakest, it will fight a decisive battle with them, quickly defeat them, and then concentrate on resisting the invasion of the Seljuks.

So Xiao Hanli was ordered to lead 30,000 troops to the battle, and according to the information provided by the Gaochang people, the main force of the Song army had left Yanbo City for Beiting, and only some of the tribal troops remained, and the military discipline was lax, and the war preparation was negligent, it was a good time to annihilate them...... (To be continued......)