Chai Rong's imperial military meeting ended on the morning of the first day of the fourth month of the lunar calendar, and in the afternoon of the same day, Wang Feng, who got the news, found Hu Youdao, the commander of Liangxiang County, and asked the villagers under his command to be responsible for the escort of the next batch of grain and grass to the Liao army camp, and hoped to advance the departure time of this batch of baggage from the morning of the second day of the fourth month of April to the afternoon of the first day of the first day of the new year. Although Wang Feng's request was very sudden, it was almost impossible to prepare the corresponding grain and grass in the afternoon. However, as the first Hu Youdao county commander to be pulled into the "anti-Liao alliance" by Zhong Youpeng, he agreed to Wang Feng's request very simply - of course, the premise is that Wang Feng assured him that the relevant heavy grain and grass would be solved by himself, and the county government would not bother. Therefore, on the first day of the fourth month of the lunar calendar in the ninth year of the calendar (the sixth year of Xiande), Wang Feng led 500 villagers to escort more than 100 carts that were only loaded with a small half car or even an empty car but disguised as if they were fully loaded and left Liangxiang County and headed south.

It was about thirty-five miles along the official road from Liangxiang to Baoxingzhuang, and if the baggage convoy was moving at full speed, it was reasonable to say that it could reach the Liao army camp in Baoxingzhuang before dark. However, after leading the convoy to leave Liangxiang only four or five miles away, and after making sure that there were no idle people around, and that the defenders at the head of Liangxiang City could not see him, Wang Feng immediately ordered the convoy to leave the official road, turn west, enter a forest not far from the official road, and pass through the forest to a wide and flat valley. There, Qian Yuanshan, commander-in-chief of the "Southern Route Army", was waiting for him. Behind Qian Yuanshan was the camp of 12,000 people of the main force of the "Southern Route Army".

Now that they are in wartime, there are not many greetings and politeness when the brothers meet, and the two just nod their heads tacitly. Immediately, Qian Yuanshan beckoned back and ordered his guards to give orders. There was not much time, and with the sound of the wheels, a huge convoy composed of 500 four-wheeled carriages and 12,000 guards slowly drove out of the valley under the banner of Liangxiang Xiangding and the Liao Army's baggage convoy, returned to the official road, and continued to swagger south.

On the afternoon of the second day of the fourth lunar month of the ninth year of the Ying calendar (the sixth year of Xiande), the impostor Liao army's baggage convoy led by Qian Yuanshan and Wang Feng had marched to a place only fifteen miles away from the camp of the Youyun Liao army. However, the official documents issued by the Nanjing Left-behind Mansion, the United Army Division, and Liangxiang County provided very effective cover for this fake baggage team. Therefore, although the scale of this baggage convoy was far beyond the usual scale, although the vehicles used in the convoy were four-wheeled carriages that had never been used by the baggage team before, although some of the vehicles were super-large vehicles that were to be pulled by four or even eight horses, and although the escorted soldiers were much stronger and more energetic than those villagers in ordinary times, after inspecting the vouchers in the hands of Wang Feng, who led the avant-garde battalion to walk in front of the main brigade, the Liao army's probe horses did not even come close to observe this huge convoy. Then he turned his horse's head and went on to "fulfill" his duty

The distance of fifteen miles is not close, it is not far away, but in terms of the marching ability of the "Southern Route Army", it is completely certain that it will reach the camp of the Liao army before dark. But Qian Yuanshan, Wang Feng and others, who had already planned in their hearts, were not in a hurry, but very carefully controlled the speed of the team's progress. As a result, when the convoy had to stop and camp because it was getting dark and could no longer continue on its way, it was just three miles away from the Liao army camp in the battle plan.

Because the time was just right, when the quartermaster of the Liao army found out that his baggage team was indeed no longer advancing but camping on the spot, he sent his officials to question, in the face of the sky that had completely darkened at this time, the other party could only reluctantly agree to the request of the baggage team to enter the camp again the next morning, in addition to cursing a few words of anger.

Sending off the indignant quartermaster, Qian Yuanshan and Wang Feng arranged for some soldiers to set up camp and bury pots and cook food on the side facing the Liao army camp, and on the other hand, they arranged for most of the soldiers to work intensively behind those comrades in the guise of construction, and built fortifications and artillery positions according to the pre-designed haode plan, and strived to make all the preparations that should be made before dawn.

When Qian Yuanshan and Wang Feng commanded their soldiers to overhaul the fortifications, in the mountains two or three miles to the west of them, the remaining 6,000 soldiers of the "Southern Route Army" led by Tang Chao and Mutel were rapidly advancing along the rugged mountain road by the light of a few torches, forming a long snake formation within seven or eight miles from the main camp of the "Southern Route Army" to the vanguard camp of the Later Zhou Army led by Xu Shao'an, and began to build fortifications like the main force. …,

Just when the two armies of the "Southern Route Army" were working with all their might to build fortifications, a small detachment of about 100 people on the east side of the Liao Army camp was quietly moving towards the pontoon bridge erected on the Baigou River. With the help of the barely visible moon on the night of the first day of the new year, and the cover of the camouflage combat uniforms on their bodies, this small detachment composed of the most elite soldiers of the First Rank Corps and Ranger Battalion of the "Flying Dragon Army", led by Chang Mao, who has now been promoted to the commander of the Ninth Company of the Third Battalion of the First Infantry Corps, unknowingly approached the back of a small dirt slope only 200 steps away from the pontoon bridge, and lurked there, waiting for the dawn of the next day.

In the early morning of the second day of the fourth lunar month of the ninth year of the Ying calendar (the sixth year of Xiande), Xiao Siwen, the supreme commander of the Liao army in the Youyun area and the left-behind guard in Nanjing, was woken up from his sleep by his own soldiers. Although he was very dissatisfied with the behavior of his soldiers disturbing his sleep, the anxious tone of the soldiers and the faint discussion of his generals outside the tent still made him force his anger to get up and go to the Chinese army tent to listen to the report of his subordinates.

Xiao Siwen, who was full of sleep, sat down behind the handsome case, and asked his deputy and Xiao Buzhi, who was also his cronies, very unhappily: "What happened to wake up Ben Shuai?" ”

Xiao Buzhi hurriedly replied: "Your Excellency, Fang Cai went north to visit the Malay newspaper, saying that the convoy transporting grain and grass for the army did not pull out the camp to join the army after dawn, but instead set up a very strange formation in the camping place, which seemed to mean to defend the place in place. Tanma felt that this matter was abnormal, and did not dare to delay a little, so he immediately returned to the camp to report. When the last general heard this, he also felt strange, so he climbed the watchtower in the camp to take a look, and found that what Tanma said was true, and the baggage convoy was indeed different. Because it was related to the replenishment of the army's food and grass, the last general did not dare to slack off, so he aroused the marshal, and hoped that the marshal would forgive his sins. ”

Hearing that there was a problem with the convoy that sent him heavy grain and grass, Xiao Siwen suddenly fell asleep and asked: "Buzhi, you can see the truth, the baggage convoy is really abnormal?" ”

"Although there is a distance of three or four miles between our army's camp and the baggage convoy, and there is a little fog in the early morning, the last general has selected a few soldiers with excellent eyesight from the battalion to see it, and it should not be wrong." Xiao Buzhi said as he pondered his words.

As the saying goes, "hearing is false, seeing is believing", rather than sitting in the tent of the Chinese army and guessing without evidence, it is not good to see it yourself in a down-to-earth manner. So, after a little thought, Xiao Siwen left the Chinese military tent with a group of subordinates, and went straight to a watchtower located on the north side of the Liao army camp, and climbed the tower to look into the distance, intending to find out the situation of his own baggage convoy a few miles away. At this time, the early morning mist has dissipated, and with the bright sunlight and the good haode vision, the camp of the "baggage convoy" is clearly displayed in front of the Liao army generals.

As Xiao Buzhi said, the camping ground of the baggage convoy in front of him is indeed very strange. On the one hand, the baggage convoy did not form a huge circular formation with the grain wagons as the support of its predecessors, and the servants and soldiers who were responsible for driving the wagons hid in the chariot formation to rest and be on guard.

The situation in front of him was very different from Xiao Siwen's previous experience, the vehicles of the baggage convoy did not form a large car, but formed six small car formations, blocking the short seven or eight miles wide from the Baigou River to the Xishan Yumai.

Because this strange baggage convoy was blocked by the Liao army's retreat to Youzhou City, Xiao Siwen, who had completely woken up, ordered the detective horse to carefully explore the baggage convoy and the surrounding situation, and at the same time took out a monocular sent by Xiao Jixian from his arms and looked at the "baggage" convoy camp three miles away.