Because his decision was related to the success or failure of the war against the Han Dynasty, the prestige of the imperial court, the face of the official family, and the lives of nearly 100,000 soldiers under the city of Taiyuan, and he was indeed unwilling to submit to the threat of the Beiping Army again -- although he was forced to hand over the 16 states of the Beiping Army to the hands of the "Qingyuan" brothers in Beiping City last year, the "Qingyuan" brothers still had the merit of killing and capturing nearly 300,000 horses of the Khitan Army that time. I can accept it better in my heart. But this time, the Beiping Army intervened sideways for no reason, trapping itself and trapping the imperial army in a dilemma, and it was really impossible to find any reason to comfort himself, so how could Chai Rong, who was the emperor of the Great Zhou, be willing. Therefore, it is difficult for Chai Rong to make a choice for a while, and he needs time to consider, weigh and convince himself. However, a series of events that happened one after another after the Imperial Military Conference did not allow him to consider, weigh, or convince himself.

On the first day of the eighth month of the lunar calendar in the seventh year of Xiande, that is, the day after the end of the imperial military meeting, the Changlian City under construction on the south side of Taiyuan City suddenly collapsed, and the earthen city dozens of steps long suddenly fell without warning, burying dozens of soldiers and servants who were busy under the wall in the thick loess. Although other soldiers and servants tried their best to save them, more than a dozen buried soldiers and servants still lost their lives, and all the other buried were also wounded.

The impact of the collapse of the Changlian Wall on the Later Zhou army had not yet dissipated, and then on the second day of the eighth month of the lunar calendar in the seventh year of Xiande, the embankment used to divert the Jin water into the Fenshui River burst, and hundreds of soldiers and servants who were working around the embankment were swept away by the river that burst the embankment, and suffered heavy casualties.

Before the third afternoon of the eighth month of the lunar calendar in the seventh year of Xiande, when the "Shenji Army" was transporting artillery to the Changlian City on the west side of Haode and preparing to bombard the city, it made another mistake. Two cannons weighing more than 2,000 catties suddenly lost their balance during the process of carrying them up the earth city, and fell with a bang, killing and wounding dozens of soldiers and craftsmen, eight of whom died of serious injuries.

The successive accidents made the military spirit of the Later Zhou army, which was already unable to take Taiyuan City for a long time and the robbery of heavy grain and grass, and some people were panicked. Many soldiers, servants, and even officers are discussing in private, and some people think that these accidents do not happen by chance, but that God is very dissatisfied with the violation of the law of "fire and water attack" by the imperial court, and sends down to punish the Hou Zhou monarchs and generals; Some people believe that these accidents were caused by the spells cast by the masters of the Dao invited by the puppet Han court in the city, and that the battle was not possible for the Later Zhou army of ordinary people to win; Some people believe that when Chai Rong was in the palace, he was successively named the Marquis of Taiyuan County and the King of Jin by Zhou Taizu, and Taiyuan City was actually where Chai Rong's luck was. Chai Rong's siege of Taiyuan now is actually a kind of destruction of his own luck, and he is fighting with himself, and no matter who wins or loses, it is a damage to the national fortune of the Great Zhou.

In the face of all kinds of rumors, Chai Rong ordered the generals of all departments to make every effort to suppress them, severely punish those who confuse the public and disturb the morale of the army, and on the other hand, vigorously proclaimed that the imperial court's attack on the Han Dynasty was to obey the people and eliminate disobedience, and it had sufficient legitimacy and rationality. However, rumors can be so easily suppressed. Although the suppression and punishment of rumors by the superiors made the soldiers dare not discuss these things in front of people, they could not stop everyone from secretly passing on all kinds of rhetoric. Moreover, this kind of suppression and punishment made the soldiers more convinced of the truth of the rumors.

And just when the military spirit of the Later Zhou Army was becoming more and more unstable and there were more and more rumors, another piece of news made Chai Rong, who had never been able to make up his mind, have no time to think too much about it, and must make a decision immediately. Because from the afternoon of the "Shenji Army" artillery slip accident to the noon of the next day, in a short period of less than 10 hours, several groups of envoys rode horses and galloped into the camp of the Later Zhou Army, and sent Chai Rong an urgent report from the rear -- two batches of heavy grain and grass were successively looted by the "Khitan" reinforcements of unknown origin, and the escort soldiers and their accompanying men suffered heavy losses, and all the baggage grain and grass were burned; The "Khitan" reinforcements suddenly appeared outside the newly recovered city of Qinzhou, showing off their might. The defenders of Qinzhou did not dare to fight due to their limited strength and unknown enemy situation, so they only ordered the soldiers to guard the city; After demonstrating under the city of Qinzhou, the "Khitan" reinforcements turned to the southwest, and boldly came to the city of Luzhou, which was an important place for the transfer of heavy grain and grass for the Later Zhou and Han armies, to continue their journey of showing off their might. The defenders of Luzhou were like facing a great enemy, and on the one hand, they arranged soldiers to defend strictly, and on the other hand, they asked for help from the surrounding states and counties to protect Luzhou. …,

Two batches of heavy grain and grass were looted in succession, Qinzhou and Luzhou were directly threatened by the other party, and a series of events immediately put the Later Zhou army under Taiyuan City into a dangerous situation. Not to mention that the Luzhou side may not dare to supply food to the front line before gathering enough escort troops to resist tens of thousands of cavalry, even if the new baggage grain and grass team sets off from Luzhou now, it will take eight to ten days to reach the city of Taiyuan. Even if the Hou Zhou army under the city of Taiyuan included the emergency grain and grass reserves used to save their lives at critical moments, according to the strictest grain and grass control and quantitative implementation, it could only support until the eighth day of the eighth month of the lunar calendar at most. In addition, before the war, the Northern Han Dynasty had moved almost all the people within 100 miles of Taiyuan City into Taiyuan City, and buried or burned the grain that the people could not take away, so that the Later Zhou army could not raise food on the spot under Taiyuan City. Therefore, unless there is any miracle, otherwise, before the new batch of heavy grain and grass arrives at the fastest speed, the Zhou army will be without food for at least four days after nearly 100,000.

As far as the attacking army is concerned, the four-day lack of food is a serious blow to the morale of the army. And for an army like the Later Zhou and Han armies, which was already panicked and shaken, its blow could even be described as fatal. Therefore, after getting this series of bad news, Chai Rong understood that he could no longer do anything to sweep away the hypocrite's Jihua. So he no longer hesitated, and put aside the various countermeasures proposed by the ministers of the previous military conference, including ordering the Beiping Army to clear the so-called "Khitan" reinforcements, and soon ordered to stop all preparations for the siege, and immediately pulled out the camp and set up the village, and the division returned to the court. At the same time, Chai Rong ordered the officials of the former Northern Han prefectures and counties along the way, who were under the control of the Later Zhou court and whose people had not been relocated to Taiyuan, to raise grain from the local government for the use of the army. On the one hand, he ordered the Luzhou garrison to transport a new batch of heavy grain and grass to the north two days after the army returned to the division, so that it could replenish the needs when it met the retreating army.

Of course, while Chai Rong was determined to withdraw his troops, he did not give up the opportunity to fight the Northern Han Dynasty. On the one hand, he ordered that after raising a certain amount of grain and grass for the army, he moved all the people of the former Northern Han Qinzhou closest to the Later Zhou to the Later Zhou to settle in the Later Zhou Dynasty, so as to weaken the strength of the Northern Han Dynasty. On the other hand, out of consideration for destroying the alliance between the Beiping army and the Northern Han Dynasty, which was either real or just a speculation by his own monarchs and ministers, he also sent an envoy to Beiping City with a holy decree as soon as possible, ordering the Beiping Army to immediately send troops to the Northern Han Dynasty to wipe out this group of hypocrites who did not know the height of the sky and the height of the earth for the imperial court.

After the Zhou army withdrew, the happiest were naturally the monarchs and ministers of the Northern Han Dynasty and the people. Therefore, after confirming that the Zhou army really retreated and not a plan to lure the enemy, everyone in Taiyuan City, from the emperor Liu Jun to the common people, was elated and ecstatic. On the one hand, Liu Jun ordered people to distribute grain, rice, cattle and wine to the gentry of the people in the city as a reward, and on the other hand, he made a big show in the palace to entertain the military generals of the Chinese court, as well as Xin Feiyu, who had made great contributions to the defense of Taiyuan City, and all the members of the "Military Advisory Group of the Beiping Army" under his command.

At the banquet, Liu Jun, who was in a good mood, once again mentioned to Xin Feiyu that he wanted to be commensurate with Wang Kunjun and others as brothers, and married his wife and sister to Wang Kunjun. In this regard, Xin Feiyu no longer prevaricated and perfunctory like last time, but said that he had reported the matter to the brothers in Beiping City through his right-hand man. And several elder brothers only said that they couldn't climb high enough to Liu Jun's suggestion that they should be brothers, so there was no reason to refuse. As for the achievement of the marriage between the two parties, the fifth brother Wang Kunjun still has some concerns. After all, he now has two wives, and Liu Jun's wife and sister feel that they have been disadvantaged to be ordinary wives in the past, let alone be concubines. And Wang Kunjun's two existing wives are both virtuous and gentle people, and there is nothing wrong with them, and it is unreasonable to demote them to concubines, or simply divorce them. Therefore, for Liu Jun's proposal to get married, Wang Kunjun has not yet made a Zuihou decision, and he still needs to think about it in the long run. …,

In addition, Xin Feiyu also said that in order to express the sincerity of the alliance between the Beiping Army and the Great Han Yong, the Beiping Army has decided to send Xu Shao'an, who is also the deputy envoy of the Beiping Army, to Taiyuan City with a group of brothers. On the one hand, it was to enhance the friendship with the Northern Han court and Emperor Liu Jun, and on the other hand, it was also to discuss how the two sides could further strengthen cooperation and jointly resist the Zhou State in the future.

Although Wang Kunjun was a little hesitant on the issue of marriage between the two parties, it was not absolutely impossible to do things, and it was not impossible to let his wife and sister be Wang Kunjun's equal wife - after all, it was only his own wife and sister, not his daughter or sister, and Liu Jun had more room to turn around. Second, even if he and Wang Kunjun do not marry, there are many members of the Beiping Army who have not yet married a wife, and Liu Jun still has a relatively wide range of choices -- among them, Xu Shao'an, the deputy envoy of the Beiping Army who has not yet married a wife, is the first candidate. Therefore, Liu Jun is still full of confidence that the two parties will eventually succeed in their marriage, and he is very much looking forward to the upcoming marriage of Xu Shaoan, the first candidate for marriage.

On the 14th day of the eighth month of the lunar calendar in the first year of the Northern Han Dynasty Tianhui (the seventh year of Zhou Xiande), Xin Feiyu, accompanied by Yang Ye, entered the palace and reported to Liu Jun: Xu Shao'an and other "Qingyuan" brothers and their entourage had arrived 20 miles north of Taiyuan City.