On the same day that the Northern Expedition of the Later Zhou Dynasty marched into Gu'an, Sun Xingyou, the envoy of the Later Zhou Dingzhou Jiedu, also led his headquarters to march north, cooperating with the main force of the Later Zhou army, and penetrating directly into the west side of Gu'an, intending to occupy Yizhou, in order to prevent the Khitan soldiers and horses from Ulzhou from copying the flank of the main force of the Later Zhou army.

Sun Xingyou led the army to the city of Yizhou, as the only one of the eight states in front of the mountain to drive Zhong Youpeng, who came to see and tried to persuade him, out of the house, and claimed that "life is a Liao country, death is a Liao ghost" Yizhou assassin Shi Li Zaiqin, although at this time it was inevitable that he was timid and fearful, but in front of his subordinates and the soldiers defending the city, he still pretended to be righteous and awe-inspiring, and swore to live and die with Yizhou City. On the one hand, he personally urged his officials and soldiers to strengthen the city defense in preparation for the Zhou army to attack, and on the other hand, he sent people to Youzhou City to ask for help from Xiao Siwen, who was left behind in Nanjing.

However, many times it is not just bold words, not to mention that Li Zaiqin is still very empty when he says these bold words. In the face of the menacing Dingzhou soldiers, not everyone can show such righteousness and awe-inspiring as Li Zaiqin, and are willing to work for the Liao court, which has nothing to do with them and was established by a foreign race-even if they are just unwilling to pretend to be righteous and awe-inspiring. Therefore, when Sun Xingyou commanded his soldiers to begin the siege of the city, except for Li Zaiqin and hundreds of his own soldiers, the other Yizhou soldiers and generals were in a state of ineffective work to defend the city, even after Li Zaiqin killed several soldiers and junior officers who were ineffective.

The defenders of the city will be so perfunctory, and the fate of Yizhou City can be imagined. It took less than half a day for the Dingzhou army to attack the southern wall of Yizhou City, and quickly developed to both sides, and the entire Yizhou City was already in the hands of the Dingzhou Army in the afternoon. And Li Zaiqin, who has been saying that he wants to live and die with Yizhou City, tore off the previous pretense of not fearing death and righteous awe-inspiring after the Dingzhou army attacked the southern city wall, first became panicked and lost ground, and then threw his previous bold words out of the clouds, and ran to the north gate with the remaining more than 100 personal soldiers, trying to escape from Yizhou City by taking advantage of the opportunity that the Dingzhou army had just entered the city and had not yet occupied the whole city. It's just that although Lee Jae-chin's wishful thinking is playing well, it has no possibility of realizing it at all. Sun Xingyoufu, who had long understood his nature of being strong on the outside and working on the inside, and being fierce on the inside, sent his right-hand men to lead a team to set up an ambush on the road that Li Zaiqin had to flee to Youzhou, thinking that Li Zaiqin and his dead party who had escaped alive were all captured alive and sent to Sun Xingyou.

Facing Li Zaiqin, who was already paralyzed on the ground and only knew how to kowtow to himself and beg for mercy, Sun Xingyou was ashamed in his eyes except for disdain, and he was not willing to say a word to this kind of person at all. When he ordered his subordinates to escort Lee Jae-qin and his party to the imperial car, it was up to the son of today to decide the life and death of this defeated general who had no backbone.

For this kind of villain who kept saying that he wanted to be loyal to Da Liao before he was captured, but after being captured, he only knew how to kowtow and beg for mercy, Chai Rong's handling was also quite simple. He simply didn't even see Li Zaiqin, so he ordered the warriors in front of the palace to behead him in the camp of the Zhou army, which was regarded as a sacrifice flag for the upcoming battle of Gu'an.

Just when Li Zaiqin "showed" himself like a clown jumping off the beam, Ren Wufu, who was the magistrate of Gu'an County, was very comfortable. Since there was already communication and exchange with Zhong Youpeng, who came to visit him in the first year, the two sides had reached an agreement on the appointment of Wufu to join the "anti-Liao alliance". Therefore, in the face of the Hou Zhou army that went north from Waqiao Pass and went straight to Gu'an County, Ren Wufu not only did not panic, but had some expectations for the arrival of the Hou Zhou army, hoping that after the battle of Youyun, he could get the favorable conditions promised to him by Zhong Youpeng, and from then on, he would be able to achieve the prosperous official fortune that he had been pursuing since he joined the official career, but had never had the opportunity to achieve it.

However, just when Ren Wufu was looking forward to his "splendid future", a sudden unexpected situation made him a little worried, and he didn't know what to do for a while - on the sixth day after Chai Rong was stationed at Waqiao Pass, Xiao Siwen's cronies, Youzhou Ya general Cao Jiyun led 500 Khitan cavalry to Gu'an City.

On the one hand, he personally investigated and observed the situation of the Later Zhou army, so that he could report to Xiao Siwen after returning home, so that Xiao Siwen could have a direct understanding of the Later Zhou army that invaded the north. On the other hand, because almost all of the magistrates and guards of the seventeen counties of the three prefectures of Guannan surrendered without a fight, Xiao Siwen also had a certain sense of distrust of the governors and guards of other prefectures and counties, and he let Cao Jiyun lead 500 iron cavalry into Gu'an County, and also supervised the officials and soldiers of Gu'an County to resist the Hou Zhou army, and replaced them when necessary - for this reason, Xiao Siwen specially gave Cao Jiyun a warrant, allowing him to take over all the military and political power of Gu'an City from Ren Wufu in an emergency, and to dispose of all the officials and generals in the city by himself. ,

As a veteran of officialdom who has been in the office for many years, Ren Wufu can naturally guess the purpose of Cao Jiyun's coming to Gu'an. It is precisely because of this that he is worried and hesitant to decide whether to surrender according to the established Jihua Kaejo. Although, if Ren Wufu really opened Gu'an City and let the Hou Zhou army enter the city, then in the face of nearly 100,000 Hou Zhou troops, the 500 cavalry brought by Cao Jiyun would basically not play any role in blocking it. However, the key question is whether Cao Jiyun will perceive Ren Wufu's intentions in advance, and whether he will intervene to stop Ren Wufu when he decides to surrender Kaicheng -- in Cao Jiyun's capacity, it is not difficult to give Ren Wufuan a charge of collaborating with the enemy and deal with him accordingly. Once Cao Jiyun kills Ren Wufu, then in the face of the 500 murderous Khitan elites, the 5,000 defenders in Gu'an City (1,500 regular troops, 3,500 villagers) are likely to give up the idea of resistance, and obey Cao Jiyun's dispatch to fight to the death with the Hou Zhou army that killed the city. After all, no matter how strong the Later Zhou army was, it could only exert its might outside the city walls for the time being, which was far less threatening than the Khitan iron cavalry beside him.

Just when Ren Wufu was hesitating about whether to surrender Kaesong, the visit of two old friends relieved him of his concerns. And those who visited him were Zhong Youpeng and Wang Feng, who left Waqiao Pass a few days earlier than the Later Zhou army and entered Gu'an City, which was already heavily guarded due to Cao Jiyun's arrival, through secret channels.

After the two sides met, Ren Wufu told Zhong Youpeng about his concerns, hoping that his old friend and classmate would find a good way for himself to successfully realize the dedication of the city to Zhou Tianzi, and avoid Cao Jiyun from being aware of his actions and disadvantageous to himself.

After entering the city, Zhong Youpeng and Wang Feng had already learned the news that Cao Jiyun had led 500 horsemen to supervise the battle through the local "Dark Feather" branch, and Zhong Youpeng had also expected that his classmate and friend might hesitate to surrender to Kaesong. It's just that due to the suddenness of the incident and Zhong Youpeng's limited knowledge of Cao Jiyun, it is not certain for a while how loyal this Xiao Siwen's cronies will be to his master-"Dark Feather" does not pay much attention to generals like Cao Jiyun who are not the commanders, and his understanding of him is only at a relatively superficial level, and he cannot provide Zhong Youpeng with enough information to judge.

Therefore, until he came to see Ren Wufu, Zhong Youpeng couldn't come up with a way to solve this matter. And he came to visit Ren Wufu this time, not only to cheer up the other party, but also to learn more about this Youzhou general and Xiao Siwen's henchman through Ren Wufu, who has dealt with Cao Jiyun for a few days, so as to solve this "stumbling block" in the shortest possible time. Therefore, when Ren Wufu asked Zhong Youpeng this question directly, Zhong Youpeng's answer was not a solution to this problem, but asked Ren Wufu to provide more information about Cao Jiyun, especially what this guy did after coming to Gu'an City.

In this regard, Ren Wufu naturally will not have anything to hide. He said to Zhong Youpeng: "As far as the junior brother knows, this Cao Jiyun is one of Xiao Siwen's most trusted generals, and he can be regarded as Xiao Siwen's most trusted and confidant. Moreover, because Xiao Siwen has the grace of saving his life and the favor of promotion to Cao Jiyun, Cao Jiyun is also grateful to Xiao Siwen, which means that 'the person who dies for his confidant'. Otherwise, Xiao Siwen would not have sent him to Gu'an to supervise the battle. With Cao Jiyun's diehard loyalty to Xiao Siwen, he will never sit back and watch us dedicate Gu'an City to the Great Zhou court. Moreover, judging from the situation of rectifying the city defense, training soldiers, and collecting grain and grass materials after he arrived in Gu'an, his determination to live and die with Gu'an City and kill himself for Xiao Siwen's life-saving grace and the grace of knowing the encounter is still very firm. From the younger brother's point of view, if you want him to abandon the darkness and turn his back on the light, turn his back on Xiao Siwen and the Khitan court, and serve us and the Great Zhou court, I am afraid it is almost impossible. ”

Zhong Youpeng nodded when he heard this, and agreed: "What Brother Ren said is good. Like Cao Jiyun, Xiao Siwen's close confidant, it is impossible to sell him with his future, money, beauty, etc. In this way, if we want to solve this problem, you and my brother need to think about it carefully. ”

Regarding Zhong Youpeng's remarks, Ren Wufu agreed with one hundred people. He nodded again and again, and echoed: "What Brother Zhong said is extremely true, this matter needs to be carefully considered, and it must be foolproof." ”,

Seeing Zhong and Ren, the two of them looked at Cao Jiyun, who had been killed halfway, like a tiger, but Wang Feng, who had not spoken, was a little anxious. In his opinion, now that the Hou Zhou army has started from Waqiao Pass, it will soon arrive at the city of Gu'an, and the crossing team is also waiting for the Hou Zhou army to take Gu'an and enter Liangxiang, forcing Xiao Siwen to lead the army south to Liangxiang to fight against the Hou Zhou army, so as to buy enough time for the Khitan "sleeping king" emperor to lead the army to come to reinforcements. Then he waved his army north, fought to the death with the reinforcements of the Liao army, completely defeated the Liao State, and won the Sixteen Prefectures of Youyun. At this time, how can there be so much time for Zhong and Ren to think carefully.

Therefore, Wang Feng raised his hand to interrupt the conversation between Zhong and Ren, and then said lightly: "Father-in-law, Lord Ren, in my opinion, this matter is not as complicated as the two adults think. In my opinion, since this whole thing was caused by the sudden appearance of such a so-called Xiao Siwen's henchman Cao Jiyun, then the easiest way is to get rid of this person and eliminate the root cause of this unfavorable plan to dedicate the city. As long as Cao Jiyun died, the five hundred Khitan cavalry under his command lost their commander, and naturally they couldn't turn over any storms, and Lord Ren's problem was solved. ”

Zhong Youpeng listened to Wang Feng's suggestion thoughtfully, but Ren Wufu waved his hand again and again and said, "It's not easy to assassinate Cao Jiyun. Not to mention that he himself is strong in martial arts, he was accompanied by dozens of personal soldiers when he went out, and he was extremely guarded. It would not be easy for even a first-class martial arts master to get close to him, let alone take his life. Moreover, once the assassination fails, it will not only arouse the vigilance of the other party, but also may prompt it to immediately take action and seize the military and political power of Gu'an County. At that time, it is said that the city will surrender, but I am afraid that even the lives of a few of us may not be saved. ”

Regarding Ren Wufu's worries and worries, Wang Feng didn't care about it at all. He sneered disapprenously: "Although there is some truth in what Lord Ren said, there are times when the risks that should be taken are still taken. What's more, assassinating Cao Jiyun doesn't necessarily require getting close to him. ”