Yelu Yi Lage's department was ambushed in Lengshuigou, which meant that the passage to Shangjing Road from the Beiping Army had been cut off, so Deputy General Xiao, who heard the news, couldn't help but feel cold in his heart, and his mind was a little dazed for a while, and he did not give any answer to the request of the herald of the former army. Seeing that his main general was sitting on his horse and was speechless for a long time, and knew very well what would happen to the formation of his own team once it was dispersed by the rout, the former army messenger was anxious, and he didn't care about the etiquette of respect and humility, so he touched his chest with his fist again, and asked Vice General Xiao loudly: "The former army general ordered the general to ask the general, whether to avoid or disperse the rout troops coming from the south, and ask the general to give an order immediately." ”

The herald's shouts woke Vice General Xiao from his distraction. Realizing that he had just shown some gaffes, he did not blame the former army herald for his faux pas, but weighed the pros and cons in the shortest possible time, looked at the Tuhe River (Laoha River) not far from the main road, and then decisively ordered: "Order the whole army, immediately move closer to the direction of the river on the side of Xiangyou, and continue to go north along the bank of the Tuhe River." In addition, I told all the officers and men that now that it is the time of life and death for our army, all those who dare to rush at our army from the opposite side will be killed regardless of whether they are enemies or us, and they must not be merciful. ”

Continue to rush forward -- this is the most Haode method that Vice General Xiao can think of at the moment. For in the present situation, neither he ordered to avoid the rout in front of him, or dispersed them on the spot, nothing good would come of him.

Pausing the advance, leaving the main road to form a formation, and avoiding the rout, of course, can maintain the formation of your own team and avoid the chaos and trouble caused by the two armies colliding together. But the problem is that behind the rout is the pursuit of the Beiping Army. Once his side has passed the rout, he will meet the pursuers of the Beiping Army face to face. When the time comes, when the Peiping Army sees that its side is well-organized and its formation is not chaotic, it is very likely to abandon the rout and point the spearhead at its own side -- no one will put a well-organized and undamaged new force on its flank to threaten its own rear road.

Forming a formation on the spot and dispersing the rout is a palliative rather than a cure. Because although this can ensure that his own team will not be rushed and scattered by the rout, he still has to face the pursuit of the Beiping army behind the rout, so that he can become a shield for the rout to resist the pursuit of the Beiping army -- this is absolutely unacceptable to Vice General Xiao, who has already been an "abandoned son" once by Yelu Yi Lage. And if his side continues to go north along the bank of the Tuhe River (Laoha River), although it is inevitable to encounter the pursuers of the Beiping Army, it is inevitable to have a fight. But first, since the main force of his side fled south in such a panic, it means that the morale of his army has collapsed, and it means that there must be pursuers of the Beiping Army behind him. As a result, the number of troops left behind in Lengshuigou must be very limited, and they may not even send people to guard them at all. Once your side breaks through the interception of the pursuing troops of the Beiping Army, the probability of successfully crossing the Lengshuigou Valley is high. Second, the Beiping Army was in a pursuit formation at this time, and the marching speed of the team would definitely be very fast, and the depth of its formation would inevitably be very limited. In addition, the side close to the river is not the preferred route for the rout, and the Beiping army should have fewer pursuit troops. Charging in the usual "chisel" formation on his side, although there were some casualties, the time for the two opposing teams to come into contact with each other was very short, given that both sides had raised their horse speed to almost the maximum. No matter how sharp the firearms of the Beiping Army were, the damage to their own men and horses in such a short period of time was very limited.

The military order was immediately issued, and the headquarters of Deputy General Xiao continued to march northward, while leaving the main road and gradually approaching the direction of the Tuhe River (Laoha River), and marched quickly along the left bank of the Tuhe River (Laoha River). Moreover, in the course of the march, the officers and men of the unit resolutely carried out the orders of the commander-in-chief, and showed no mercy to any comrades who dared to attack their own marching ranks, or tried to seek refuge in their own side. The distant ones shoot with bows and crossbows, and the close ones slash with knives and spears, ensuring that their formations are not chaotic and people's hearts are not scattered. Although those Khitan routs were extremely dissatisfied and angry with the behavior of Deputy General Xiao's subordinates, first, there was no hope of success for the new force that was scattered and routed to attack the strict formation, and second, the pursuers of the Beiping Army were rolling over from behind their buttocks, and there was no time to stop and talk to these former comrades who were drawing swords and spears and arrows against them. They had to keep this hatred in their hearts, and take revenge on them for the next day, if they had any future days.

As it turned out, Vice Admiral Xiao's decision, which seemed a bit risky, was the right one. As he expected, in order to pursue the Khitan rout, in order to hold as many Khitan soldiers and horses as possible, the troops responsible for blocking the Khitan army in Lengshuigou spread their formation very far apart when pursuing the Khitan rout, and the right wing was along the edge of the mountainous jungle area, and the left flank was attached to the left bank of the Tuhe River (Laoha River), like a huge fishing net, coming from north to south, trying not to let go of an enemy. It's just that although such a net-like formation can prevent the Khitan rout from slipping out of the gap of the pursuing troops of the Beiping Army by taking advantage of the chaos, it also causes the shortcomings of insufficient depth and relatively thin formation. As a result, when the soldiers on the far left wing of the pursuing force met with Adjutant Xiao's men and horses, they could not form an effective resistance to the other side at all. Although the officers and men of the Beiping Army on the left flank did their best to block the enemy and inflict heavy casualties on the enemy, because the number of soldiers participating in the blockade was too small and the depth of the formation was too shallow, they were still surrounded by the cavalry infantry of the third division and one regiment of the "Flying Dragon Army" who was following the first cavalry and was responsible for sweeping the tail. In addition to the nearly 1,000 men lost in the course of the assault and the 3,000 soldiers and horses of the rear army who were cut off by the three divisions and one regiment and surrounded by the river, the main force of about 6,000 people was able to successfully escape, and rushed out of Lengshuigou, which was already unfortified, and retreated all the way north through Gaozhou, Fengzhou, and Raozhou, until Shangjing Linhuangfu.

It is a pity that most of the centaurs under Deputy General Xiao have successfully broken through, but Mutel, who is responsible for directing the ambush and pursuit battle, does not take this small flaw too seriously. After all, compared with the 6,000 men and horses of Vice General Xiao, the main force of more than 40,000 Khitan reinforcements who are being pursued by the 8,000-foot cavalry army led by himself and fleeing to Enzhou like a lost dog is the real big cake.

A few days ago, he and Zeng Zhilin set up two routes to capture Dading City, prompting Yelu Yilage to abandon Enhua and retreat northward, all the way to a wide range of detours, far bypassing Enhua, after the Khitan reinforcements retreated northward through Lengshuigou ambush, Muttel led 8,000 foot, cavalry, and artillery troops quietly left Dading City, circled a large arc between the mountains and hills, and rushed to the exit of Lengshuigou to set up an ambush.

Seeing that the only way to retreat was blocked by the Beiping Army, the retreating Khitan reinforcements launched round after round of desperate assaults on the northwest exit of Lengshuigou under the command and supervision of Yelu Yi Lage. Although after nearly three hours of attack, the Khitan reinforcements did not make any substantial progress except for throwing nearly 10,000 corpses in vain, and the entire army collapsed when Yelu Yilag was killed by a shell. However, due to the limited time, the temporary fortifications were built in a bit of a hurry, so in the face of the Khitan army's attack, a company of the "Wolf Tooth" battalion and the third division and one regiment of the "Flying Dragon Army" who were responsible for the frontal blockade also came under heavy pressure and paid heavy casualties. Fortunately, this interception and ambush operation finally ended with Yelu Yi Lage's troops who were killed, participated in the blockade and pursuit, and Zeng Zhilin's department, which went north from Dading, passed through Enhua, and joined it ten miles north of Enhua City, and successfully surrounded nearly 40,000 people from Yelu Yi Lage's department who had fled all the way from Lengshuigou.

In this battle, in addition to the more than 6,000 people under the command of Deputy General Xiao who escaped by luck, and the more than 4,000 defeated troops scattered and fled into the mountains and jungles, the Khitan court reinforced the reinforcements of Dading Mansion, and the Khitan court at this stage Zuihou A mobile Liliang was annihilated by the Northern Expeditionary Army of the Beiping Army Nearly 60,000 people, and the entire army was almost wiped out. If we add the Khitan army annihilated by the left and right armies of the Northern Expeditionary Army, this time in order to carry out the "Overlord Operation", to weaken the Khitan Liliang, and to promote the "Jianye No. 1 Operation Jihua" without worries, the Beiping Army annihilated nearly 150,000 horses of the Khitan Army at a relatively high cost of nearly 1,000 casualties -- the Lengshuigou Blockade accounted for the majority of them -- in addition, more than 30,000 Khitan officials, nobles, gentry and ordinary people were captured by the Left Route Army of the Northern Expedition and returned to the Beiping Army. Although this figure is nearly half of the 300,000 enemies destroyed in the Battle of Youyun two years ago, considering that in the number of enemies destroyed in the previous Battle of Youyun, the military servants and auxiliaries occupy a large share, but this Northern Expedition operation is mainly to annihilate the combat units of the Khitan Army. Therefore, in terms of the intensity of the attack on the Khitan court and the Khitan army, these two wars were equal and evenly divided.

More importantly, with the annihilation of Yelu Yi Lage, the Khitan court was no longer able to enter the central and southern regions of Zhongjing Province for a long time, and could no longer pose any threat to the core area of the Beiping army, so that the Beiping army could focus its main energy on the south, on Kaifeng City, which was likely to fall into turmoil in the near future, and on the matter of chasing the Central Plains and striving for greater benefits for itself. Therefore, after receiving the telegram jointly sent by Zeng Zhilin and Muttel, the committee not only immediately replied to the two and gave them praise and awards, but Wang Kunjun also spoke directly with Zeng and Mu on behalf of the committee, bringing them the committee's congratulations and encouragement.

The tremendous achievements, the praise and encouragement from the committee and the brothers made Zeng Zhilin and Muttel enthusiastic and energetic. Zeng Zhilin sat in Dading City, arranged for officials from Dading and several surrounding prefectures and counties to organize servants and various building materials, and built a new fort near the northwest exit of Lengshuigou as soon as possible, Lengshui Fort, to add a defensive barrier to Enzhou and Dadingfu; Muttel led a mixed force of 10,000 infantry, cavalry, and artillery to the east, and at the end of August, he captured Xingzhongfu, another important town in Zhongjing Province, thus drawing a successful end to this northern expedition.

On the 18th day of September in the lunar calendar of the eighth year of Xiande, the three regiments of the newly transferred "Security Army" were stationed in Dading and Xingzhong, as well as the newly built Lengshui Fort, and the newly appointed governor of Quan Dading Prefecture (also in charge of military administration and civil affairs) Wu Peng led the "Feilong Army" Second Division and the First Regiment of the Second Division to sit in Dading City, and after ensuring the security of the northern border of the Beiping Army together with Huang Hai, the governor of Quan Jinzhou and Zhongxing, Zeng Zhilin and Mutel led the rest of the troops of the Northern Expeditionary Army back to the division pass. At this point, the Beiping Army's "Overlord Operation" and the coordinated Northern Expedition ended with the glorious results of the Beiping Army annihilating more than 150,000 Khitan troops, capturing more than 30,000 Khitan population, occupying one-half of the Khitan Zhongjing Road, and successfully establishing the security of the northern border.