The fact that Shi Shouxin's headquarters was attacked and almost wiped out was confirmed, and Chai Rong immediately convened the Minister of Civil and Military Affairs to discuss the method of response. At the Imperial Council, the ministers present at the meeting discussed and expressed their opinions. However, the first topic of discussion was not how to deal with this sudden change, but where this Khitan reinforcement of more than 10,000 people came from. Because since the defeat in the Battle of Youyun last year, the Khitans who lost the sixteen states of Youyun have actually lost the passage to the south to support the puppet Han.

As for whether there was a subjective reason for the attack on Shi Shouxin's headquarters, and whether the imperial court and even the official Chai Rong also bore some responsibility in it, it is not within the scope of this military discussion. First, Shi Shouxin had already died in battle and his bones were gone, and it seemed inappropriate to criticize him for his lack of command. Second, when he raised troops to the north to attack the Han Dynasty, Chai Rong sent Li Chongjin to lead the division to the west and directly take Fenzhou. However, after capturing Fenzhou and forcing Shizhou, Xianzhou, Lanzhou and other prefectures and counties to surrender voluntarily, they were neither asked to continue westward into Linzhou, nor did they continue to go north to choke the passage from Daizhou and Xinzhou to Taiyuan in the south, in case of the Khitan army that might move south from these two directions, but ordered it to return to the division to assist the main force to attack Taiyuan, so that only a limited number of horse scouts and cavalry remained in Xiangshang on both sides.

The reason why Chai Rong and the Later Zhou court made such a decision was for no more than two reasons. First, the Later Zhou monarchs and ministers all believed that after the fiasco of the Battle of Youyun in the previous year, and the continuous harassment and raiding of the Khitan Zhongjing Road and Fengshengzhou by the Beiping Army in the past year, the Khitans were no longer able to respond to the request of the Northern Han court and send troops south to support. Second, although the Later Zhou court and the Son of Heaven Chai Rong have always had no good impression of the Beiping army, thinking that the other party is inseparable from him, and has no respect or deference to the court and the official family, everyone has never suspected that the Beiping army will collude with the Khitans. After all, after the battle of Youyun, the two sides were already on the same footing, and it was impossible to borrow the way for the Khitans to go south to help the puppet Han - even if the Beiping army was willing to borrow, I was afraid that the Khitans would not have the courage to go from there. Although Linzhou is friendly with the Khitans, there is also a Fuzhou Zhejia who is loyal to the imperial court next to it, and tens of thousands of Khitan troops pass by themselves, and it is impossible for the Zhe family not to find out, and it is even more impossible to let the Khitans pass through without hindering, harassing, or reporting to the imperial court.

It was precisely because it was not appropriate to criticize Shi Shouxin's inadequacy in command at this time, and it was also impossible to criticize the mistakes of the court and even the Chai Guanjia in arranging the troops, that the Hou Zhou monarchs and ministers attending the meeting could only focus on the doubts about how the Khitan army broke through the obstacles and entered the territory of the puppet Han without knowing it.

Regarding this issue, the civil ministers and military generals attending the meeting had different opinions, and it was difficult to unify for a while. Among them, the most representative are two points of view. One is the collusion faction represented by Zhang Yongde, who believes that the Khitan army must have colluded with the Beiping army, which has always been in harmony with the imperial court, and secretly acquiesced to its passage through its own jurisdiction. The other is the detour faction represented by Zhao Kuangyin, who believes that the Khitan army is bypassing the Beiping army this time, borrowing the road from the direction of Linzhou, which has a relationship with the Khitans, and entering the territory of the puppet Han from the west.

However, neither Zhang Yongde nor Zhao Kuangyin could agree with the majority of ministers. Because everyone really can't think of a reason why the Beiping army colluded with the Khitans to allow them to take advantage of the road, or that the Fuzhou family let the Khitan army pass by without stopping or reporting -- if everyone could think of a practical reason, the imperial court would not have been relieved and boldly abandoned the north and west directions and did not defend when arranging the troops, but concentrated all the men and horses to attack Taiyuan. …,

Just when all the civil and military officers expressed their opinions and were stubborn with each other, Prime Minister Fan Zhen, who had not spoken, thought of another possibility, and hurriedly went out of class and said to Chai Rong: "Bixia, the minister feels that the appearance of this Khitan army attacking our army's grain route is too abrupt, and the so-called evidence that it left in the place of attack is too obvious, and the move of releasing hundreds of servants is even more unreasonable.

In Chen's view, if this enemy army is really a reinforcement sent by the Khitans to help the puppet emperor Liu Jun, then the most beneficial way for it should be to make a big splash and fanfare like the last time our army attacked the Han Dynasty, so that our army knows early that it is coming to help the puppet Han court and to support the puppet emperor Liu Jun -- even if it has no path to the south of the puppet Han at all, it will not affect its verbal fulfillment of the agreement with the puppet Han court. In this way, it can not only show the importance he attaches to Liu Jun, the emperor, and the importance he attached to the original promise, but also can demonstrate to our army and disturb the morale of our army. If our army retreats in fear of its might and in the face of difficulties, it will be able to fulfill its promise to the puppet Han court without spending a single soldier, and make the puppet Han court grateful to it, wouldn't it be a good thing to kill two birds with one stone. If our army is not afraid of its might, it will not lose anything. It can not only be a fake show, and a real army can be sent to find a way to go south to support the puppet Han, or it can be prevaricated and perfunctory for various reasons, ignoring the life and death of the puppet Han court.

But the actual situation is the opposite, the Khitans did not reveal the slightest news before sending troops to aid the puppet Han, and it seems that they did not stop in any prefecture and county that was still under the control of the puppet Han court on the way south, and it is very likely that they did not even take the main road, otherwise their whereabouts would have been discovered by our army long ago. After all, although our army did not send a large army to be stationed in the west and north, our army's horse scouts and cavalry have never stopped detecting and investigating the major roads around Taiyuan from Xinzhou in the north to Xianzhou in the west, within a radius of more than 200 miles.

Moreover, after this so-called Khitan reinforcement army entered the territory of the puppet Han, its behavior was also different from the past. In the past, when the Khitan reinforcements were coming, they would definitely publicize it to let the puppet Han court and defenders in Taiyuan City know, so as to enhance the morale of the puppet Han monarchs and defenders in the city, and strengthen their determination to defend the city. And now, its tens of thousands of elite cavalry ignored the city of Taiyuan, which was besieged by our army and was in danger, but silently passed around the city, and went to Tuanbai Valley, more than 100 miles away, to ambush our army's baggage. You must know that if tens of thousands of Khitan cavalry troops show up outside the city of Taiyuan, it will not only greatly boost the morale of the puppet Han court and the defenders in the city, but also be a big deterrent to the besieging army of our dynasty. Although the 10,000 Khitan cavalry army is not enough to make our army fearful, there is such a Liliang outside, and our army is like a man's back, and it is bound to spend a lot of energy to be vigilant and vigilant, thus greatly relieving the pressure of the puppet Han defenders in the city.

In addition, although cutting off our army's food routes may cause unstability and demoralization of our army, it is slow to do so, and our army can respond by sending additional escorts and horses. Second, attacking the opponent's grain route has always been surprising and unprepared, and if the opponent is prepared, even if it is a cavalry army against an infantry army, it will not be able to get any bargain. And instead of continuing to cover up the news that their own troops had already been dispatched, in order to attack as many of our army's baggage troops as possible without knowing that they had entered the puppet Han army, this so-called Khitan reinforcement boasted its identity to the captured servants of our army - even if this so-called Khitan reinforcement army was wearing the uniform of the puppet Han army - and let go of these hundreds of captives in an extremely unbelievable way. Give it a chance to report to the imperial army. What is even more incomprehensible is that these so-called Khitan reinforcements actually left in front of these released servants, and did not hide their intention to continue to go south.

As the saying goes, 'if something is abnormal, it must be a demon', this so-called Khitan reinforcement army has made various abnormal moves one after another, which cannot but make people suspicious. Therefore, the minister had a bold guess that this so-called Khitan reinforcement was not a Khitan, but had another origin. ”

"In Fan Aiqing's opinion, if this support army is not sent by the Khitans, where does it come from?" As soon as Fan Zhen's voice fell, Chai Rong asked.

Fan questioned and hesitated for a moment, but finally decided to directly state his judgment, instead of giving Chai Rong an ambiguous answer: "Bixia, the minister thinks that Taiyuan Zuojin can have this strength, and has the courage to meddle in the affairs of the imperial court to warn the Han Dynasty, only the Beiping Army is the family." ”