In fact, it is not only Yang Kefu and Zhang Bao who can't bear and regret it. After receiving a detailed report on the course of the Battle of Shilihe, especially the use of this incendiary bomb in actual combat for the first time since the "Flying Dragon Army" was equipped, the crossing team committee, the military department, the Ministry of science and technology, and even all the traversers were shocked by the tragic situation at that time. Although the crossing team had previously had actions that were close to slaughter, such as the bombardment of Jurong City, on the one hand, Zeng Zhilin, who was a crossing party, was plotted and almost killed, and at the same time, in order to hit the determination and will of the Southern Tang Dynasty monarchs and the people to resist, Wang Kunjun and other brothers made a decision to retaliate after careful consideration. On the other hand, almost all the dead in the city were killed on the spot, and there were few cases like the remnants of the Shilihe Khitan who could not survive or die, and were burned alive. Therefore, for such an outcome, whether it is several members of the committee, or the brothers of the military department, or other crossing people, they are all considering the question of whether there is still a need for incendiary bombs as a type of ammunition.

After all, as a very inhumane weapon that was banned by international conventions in previous lives, at the beginning of the development of incendiary bombs proposed by the Ministry of War, it was opposed by some members of the crossing team. It was only because most of the brothers at that time considered more of its military role and value, and considered that some collateral damage was completely acceptable, that the resolution to develop and equip the munition was narrowly approved at the enlarged meeting of the Committee. Now, the huge destructive power and inhumane consequences of incendiary bombs are there, and with the other existing equipment of the "Wyvern Army", it is completely capable of exerting an overwhelming advantage over any opponent in this time and space, and the presence or absence of incendiary bombs will not adversely affect the wars it may face in the future. Therefore, shortly after the end of the Northern Expedition, the enlarged meeting of the crossing team committee overwhelmingly agreed to stop the production of incendiary bombs indefinitely, and to seal all existing stocks, and not to open them again unless authorized by the committee. So, in other words, if the committee does not approve the reuse of this stockpile of yellow phosphorus incendiary bombs within a year and a half, then as they reach the expiration date and are destroyed, there will be no more such ammunition in the "Flying Dragon Army" or Zhou Army's establishment sequence.

The ban on the production and strict restriction of the use of inhumane weapons such as yellow phosphorus incendiary bombs is naturally a good thing, but that is a story for another time. On the night of the second day of the sixth lunar month of the seventh year of Jianlong, the remnants of the Khitan army in the narrow space of the Shili River, which is surrounded by several rivers and a radius of only ten miles, did not receive the slightest help from this belated resolution. While the raging fires brought them nightmarish experiences and heavy casualties, they also completely disrupted their positions and ruined their plans. Originally, according to the plan of Yelu Wuzhi and the new emperor Yelu Xian and several other ministers in charge, in the event of a failure to break through the siege in the afternoon and find a crossing point, the soldiers and horses were temporarily withdrawn to the woods to rest. After the soldiers had eaten and drunk enough and had a certain amount of rest, on the one hand, they continued to send dead soldiers to attack the wooden bridge in the south to attract the attention of the Zhou army; On the other hand, in the second half of the night, some soldiers who were good at walking at night and familiar with water were arranged to go out of the camp, and under the cover of night, they continued to look for suitable places to wade across the river, so as to get out of danger. At the same time, the soldiers who stayed in the camp were organized to cut down trees and tie up rafts, preparing to force a breakthrough at night -- the goal of making rafts and forcing a breakthrough during the day was too obvious, and they could only serve as targets for the Zhou artillery and patrolling cavalry, which only increased casualties, and was far less successful than the success rate of taking advantage of the night.

In addition, just in case, Yeluwu also secretly arranged for 200 soldiers who were good at fighting, and had excellent water quality, and were also loyal to the new emperor, to follow Yeluxian. Once the crossing point could not be found before dawn, the raft was forced to cross the river without success, or other emergencies occurred, the last pro-army guard formed by these two hundred elites, pushed the small raft that had been built and hidden in advance, and sent Yeluxian and a few important officials of the court to the other side of the river and escaped.

Who would have thought that before the plan on his side began to be implemented, before he even had time to finish dinner, and before the raft could be tied, the shells of the Zhou army fell from the sky. What's more, what is even worse is that although the explosion power of the cannonballs that fell this time is much smaller than before, it is like a demon pouring down a series of inextinguishable hellfires that cannot be extinguished and the earth is crushed. The raging fires not only killed and wounded thousands of soldiers, but also burned their morale and minds. From the minister of civil and military affairs to the ordinary soldiers, they all panicked and fled in all directions. Even the two hundred elite soldiers who had been arranged to escort the Son of Heaven across the river were constantly divided and weakened either by hiding from the fire, or by blocking the robes that were on fire and running around like headless flies. In the end, following Yelu Hugo to protect Yelu Xian, Yelu Gang, Sage, Yelu Wuzhi and several other Khitan core ministers from the fire, fled to the north side of the Shili River and was blown up, and there were less than 150 elite soldiers left. Moreover, in this group, except for Yeluxian and other ministers, more than half of the soldiers had no horses, and could only follow the brigade under the foot.

Although there were not enough horses, even if his subordinates could manage to swim across the river with Yeluxian and the others, it would be difficult for them to keep up with the speed of Yeluxian and the others' escape and escape from the possible pursuit of the Zhou army with just two legs. But in the face of the fire that was still raging, Ye Luxian and the others only thought about getting away from this "purgatory" immediately, and how to escape after crossing the river and whether they could escape were completely out of their consideration.

So, after several efforts and the loss of more than a dozen personal guards and several war horses, Ye Luxian and others held a few tree trunks, and were dragged by a group of pro-soldiers who were familiar with the water, and finally swam to the other side of the river without being discovered by the Zhou army. Seeing that the scorching fire was finally left behind, and the river water more than ten zhang wide could no longer threaten his life, Ye Luxian and the others couldn't help but breathe a sigh of relief. Easy times are always short-lived, though. The group rested for a moment by the river, and when the pro-army guards had recovered a little, they had to prepare to flee again. After all, smuggling across the river is only the first step, and the soldiers and horses that the Zhou army is searching along the river may appear at any time, and everyone must leave here as much as possible.

It's just that it's easy to leave the river, but it's a question of where everyone should go after leaving the dangerous place. Although the imperial court has suffered consecutive defeats before, there are still 8,000 elites in Yeluxian's hands, and in the face of Yeluheli, who is guarding Liaoyang Mansion and has an army of 30,000, he can at least have the upper hand as Taizu Zhengshuo, and there is no need to worry too much about what the other party should not have. Now, even if the 8,000 elites will not all be buried in the fire, they will no longer have a chance to escape from the encirclement of the Zhou army. Relying on the seven or eight civil and military ministers around the new emperor and the more than 100 pro-army guards who didn't even have horses, they couldn't deter Yelu Heli in any way. Once the other party has something that he shouldn't have, the more than 100 people he doesn't even have a chance to resist, and he will die in the blink of an eye.

However, if you don't go to Liaoyang City, everyone will have to flee into the mountains. But the problem is that the Jurchen tribes there have always been in harmony with the imperial court, and the great Liao will rebel and fall when it is strong, and now that the Great Liao state is in decline, how can they be respectful and obedient to the fallen Daliao emperor and his ministers. If it's just to make things difficult and humiliate, I'm afraid that in order to curry favor with the Zhou army, they will use their own people to open the knife, and use everyone's heads to ask for rewards from the Zhou State. Moreover, it is enough to make all these Khitan nobles, including Yeluxian, feel timid, and feel timid, let these Khitan nobles, including Yeluxian, stay away from the previous mansions of fine clothes and jade and leather tents, and go to sleep in the open like savages, and return to the safari life of their ancestors. What's more, even if everyone goes hard, with the weak body of the new son of heaven, Yeluxian, can they hold out until the Zhou army gives up the search for the Great Liao monarch and ministers.

There are pros and cons to both options, and where to go is really a headache for Yeluxian and his ministers. However, under the dangerous pressure that Zhou Jun is likely to appear in front of him at any time, no matter how difficult the choice is, he must make a decision as quickly as possible. So, after thinking for a while, Yeluxian finally decided to listen to the advice of most of his courtiers, gave up the plan he had insisted on going south to Liaoyang City, and turned to the northeast, going to the Jurchen Huibabu or Hue Wangbu through Guide Prefecture, and fought with the Zhou army in the deep mountains and old forests. After the veteran soldiers of his division were tired and could not adapt to the bitter cold of winter in the northern part of the Saiwai and had to withdraw the main force to the south of the Great Wall, he left the forest again, or returned to the plains to try to gather the old troops scattered all over the country, or went north to Jinshan (Daxinganling) to form an alliance with the Tieli Kingdom and the Murowei tribes who had always been loyal to the imperial court, in order to revive the prestige of the Khitan and rejuvenate the Great Liao. In a sense, Ye Luxian's choice to flee into the deep mountains and old forests was a gamble, betting that the Zhou army would give up the search because he could not find himself for a long time, and the division veterans were tired, gambling that the Zhou army could not endure the cold of winter in the northern part of the Saiwai and returning to the court, and gambling that his body could withstand the pain of fleeing and support until the day when the Zhou army withdrew.

Now that he had decided to gamble with his life, Yeluxian no longer hesitated. After a final glance at the subordinates on the other side of the river who were still struggling to survive in the fierce fire like purgatory, he turned his head and resolutely galloped northeast with the remaining more than 100 courtiers and pro-army escorts.

I don't know if it was the short hesitation by the river that made him lose the best time to escape, or whether God no longer favored him, the "true dragon son", Ye Luxian and his party ran less than a hundred steps, and behind them there were bursts of rapid horses' hooves, the shouts of the Zhou army, and the increasingly dense gunfire.

His whereabouts were finally discovered, could it be that the sky is going to die. Despite such doubts in his heart, Ye Luxian did not want to give up resistance and be captured. Therefore, while he tried to lower his body as much as possible in order to avoid the bullets of the Zhou army, he hurried his mount, and did not care how long the horse could hold on if he ran like this. At the same time, Yelu Xiuge, who had been unwilling since the fiasco outside Yanjin City in Yinzhou before the fight, and felt ashamed of his trust in the imperial court and the Son of Heaven, was also ruthless and determined to wash away his shame by dying. So, he did not continue to follow Ye Luxian and others, but turned around and shouted, "The time has come to be loyal to the Great Liao Court and the Son of Heaven, and the soldiers without horses will go with the general to resist the enemy", and then took the lead and rushed forward against the Zhou army.

Although dozens of remnants of the Khitan army, who only had bows and arrows and scimitars, could not stop the search team of the Zhou army of more than 100 people, consisting of a reinforced platoon of the "Flying Dragon Army" and two reinforced platoons of the "Security Army", their decisive charge still slightly delayed the pursuit speed of this Zhou army, giving Yeluxian a chance to escape from the range of the latter's firearms and temporarily save his life. However, it was precisely because of Yelu Huge's decisive counterattack, and the sentence he shouted to boost morale before he launched the charge, "The time has come to be loyal to the Great Liao Court and the Son of Heaven", but it also made the pursuing Zhou army believe that the person who was running and fleeing in front was definitely an important Khitan person, and he could not let it go no matter what. Therefore, they not only closely pursued Yeluxian and others in front after they completely annihilated Yelu Xiuge and dozens of dead soldiers, but also issued emergency alarm signals one after another, summoning all the surrounding Zhou army search teams to move closer to them, in order to intercept and capture this small Khitan escape team in the shortest possible time.

Although Ye Luxian and the others have increased the speed of the horse to the limit, and on the way, there are constantly pro-army guards returning to assault, using their own flesh and blood to delay the pursuers. But in order to avoid becoming the "guiding light" of the Zhou army's pursuit of soldiers and horses, his party did not dare to light torches, so they could only rush in the dark, which affected the running speed of the horses. Second, the search troops of the Zhou army were all one-man and two-horse, and their horsepower was much stronger than that of Yeluxian and others, who were one-man and single-horse. Therefore, the distance between the two sides is inevitably getting closer and closer, and no matter how much Yeluxian and the others urge their mounts, they will not be able to get rid of the pursuers.

In the end, after riding horses and galloping wildly all night, Yeluxian and more than 30 people who were still with him were still chased by the Zhou army in Jinjia Village, which was less than five miles away from Guide City, Guide Prefecture, and surrounded by a land temple in the village. Originally, according to Yeluxian's idea, he planned to wipe his neck in the temple to commit suicide to avoid the humiliation of the prisoners. However, first, his ministers and pro-army guards tried their best to dissuade them, and secondly, the leading officers of the Zhou army, who already knew their identities outside the temple, threatened the lives of other people in the temple and the surviving Khitan generals in Shilihe, claiming that if Yeluxian died, these people would be buried with him. Only then did Yeluxian stop the idea of committing suicide, and he walked out of the temple helplessly, surrendered his weapons, and was captured.

So far, since the day before, that is, at noon on the second day of the sixth lunar month of the seventh lunar calendar of Jianlong, he was elected by everyone to succeed to the emperor's throne, and now he was captured alive by Zhou Junsheng in the morning of the third day of the sixth lunar month of the seventh lunar calendar of Jianlong.