Later in the sixth year of Zhou Xiande (the ninth year of the Liao Ying calendar), on the early morning of the 29th day of the first lunar month, the committee again received an urgent telegram from Xu Shaoan. Compared with the telegram of less than 100 words last time that Chai Rong had issued an order to send troops to the Northern Expedition on the same day, the number of words in this urgent telegram was even more limited, and it was obviously sent in a hurry. The content of the emergency telegram was less than 30 words - "Today, Chai Rong's car set off from Kaifeng to start the Northern Expedition, and his brother was also ordered to go on the expedition with the car. ”

Such a brief telegram naturally could not explain the situation of the Northern Expedition of the Later Zhou Army. However, this is not the news that the crossing team or the committee wants to know now - although the Chai Rong Northern Expedition was two months earlier than recorded in the history books of the previous life, the brothers of the committee and the military department both believe that in terms of the current situation in Zhou and Liao, the development of the war in the early stage of the Northern Expedition of the Later Zhou Army should not be much different from the previous life. Therefore, the marching route of the Later Zhou army and the war trend in the early stage of the Battle of Youyun were actually not a problem for the crossing team with a member like Zhang Weixin who was familiar with the history of the previous life. Now everyone really cares about only three things: first, Xu Shao'an's position in the Northern Expedition of the Later Zhou Dynasty; the second is the situation of Lin Xiaoyu, who had previously obtained Chai Rong's approval and agreed to accompany him to the expedition; The third is whether Cheng Fei, who led the team to provide personal guards for Xu Shaoan, and whether the personal guards of that platoon are still by his side.

However, no matter how anxious the crossing team and the committee were to know these three pieces of news, all they could do at this time was to wait patiently. Because Xu Shao'an was traveling with the radio station on the Northern Expedition this time, unless he stopped and took the initiative to send a report to the committee, it would be impossible for the committee to know whether he was ready to receive the message. Fortunately, Xu Shao'an did not let the brothers wait for a long time, and not long after dark that night, the "Liangyuan" telegraph room received Xu Shao'an's second telegram of the day from his camp. Compared with the previous urgent telegram, the content of this telegram is much more detailed.

In the telegram, Xu Shao'an informed the committee that the total strength of the Zhou army's northern expedition was 80,000 horses, and the main generals who accompanied Chai Rong included Zhao Kuangyin, Zhang Yongde, Li Chongjin, Han Tong, Wang Yanchao and other generals who have been famous in history. On the other hand, Xu Shao'an also reported in the telegram that he was ordered to lead the 5,000 men and horses of the "Shenji Army" to the north with him, and that he had been appointed by Chai Rong as the deputy commander of the vanguard, and together with Zhang Zangying, the commander of the vanguard, he served as the vanguard and sharp knife of the Northern Expedition of the Later Zhou court.

In addition, Xu Shao'an not only explained in the telegram that the route of the Later Zhou army's northward advance was from Cangzhou along the canal by land and water, and along the way, it would pass through and Jihua to capture the three passes of Qianning Army and Yijin, Waqiao, and Sikou, and insert them into the flanks of Mo and Yingzhou in one fell swoop. After occupying these two states, the troops of the Northern Expedition of the Later Zhou Dynasty could point directly to the line from Gu'an, Liangxiang to Youzhou. And also roughly estimated the time when the Zhou army arrived in Cangzhou City - half a month later, in the middle of February of the lunar calendar.

This route of march is consistent with the route of the Northern Expedition of the Later Zhou Army recorded in the history books of the previous life, or at least the part from Cangzhou to Gu'an County is consistent with the records in the history books of the previous life - it can be seen that although the history of this time and space has changed due to the arrival of the crossing team, many things still have their inevitability. In this way, the crossing team has a bottom in mind for the next stage of action, and can easily make corresponding arrangements and transfers in accordance with the previous plan, just waiting for the moment when the Zhou army arrives at Gu'an City.

Regarding the question of whether Lin Xiaoyu really drove the Northern Expedition as previously planned, Xu Shaoan also gave a tacit answer in this telegram. He said that according to the letter sent by Lin Xiaoyu before Chai Rong drove off, and after Chai Rong was stationed in Chen Qiaoyi today, he passed the news from Ma Ping'an, Ma Gonggong, the "hardcore" insider of the "dark feather" who managed to obtain the qualification to accompany him, in the palace, it has been completely determined that Lin Xiaoyu not only did go with Chai Rong this time, but also that she was disguised as a man this time and accompanied Chai Rong as Chai Rong's personal guard.

In addition, Xu Shaoan also said in the telegram that Cheng Fei and the personal guards of the platoon led by him still followed him as personal soldiers, and no one in the Later Zhou Army from Chai Rong to ordinary soldiers had expressed doubts about the identity of Cheng Fei and others. ,

For the committee, the situation of Xu Shao'an, Cheng Fei and Lin Xiaoyu is the first priority, and after making sure that everything is okay with the three of them, the next thing to focus on is the northward route of the Later Zhou army. According to Xu Shao'an's telegram, the Later Zhou army's Zuihou station in the territory of the Later Zhou should be Cangzhou City, an important border town in the north. According to the current speed of the Later Zhou army, Chai Rong's imperial drive will arrive in Cangzhou around the fifteenth day of the second lunar calendar in the sixth year of Xiande (the ninth year of the corresponding calendar). If it had been predicted that the army would have rested for two to three days before continuing its advance, Xu Shao'an's vanguard would have moved north again around 18 February to their next target, the Qianning Army.

The Qianning army will be the assassin of Ningzhou in Liao, Wang Hong. According to Zhong Youpeng, the liaison envoy of the crossing team, this person is a Han Chinese, and he is just a false villain to the Khitans, and he has no loyalty at all. Previously, Zhong Youpeng had dealt with this person when he was carrying out the "Huanyun Persuasion Tour", and the other party had clearly expressed his willingness to oppose Liao to Zhong Youpeng, saying that "whether it is the army of the Zhou court or the arrival of Youyun's righteous army, he will open the city and surrender to Cheng as soon as possible." With Wang Hong's promise, Xu Shao'an followed Zhang Zangying to lead the vanguard army to attack the Qianning army, not so much to attack the city, but to accept the city peacefully. In a sense, while paving the way and laying the foundation for their own career, the crossing team also created favorable conditions for the Later Zhou army and Chai Rong's ambitious Northern Expedition, and it can also be said that it created favorable conditions for the Later Zhou generals and their soldiers to establish military merits - including Xu Shaoan, of course. Fortunately, whether their previous actions were to make a "wedding dress" for the Northern Expedition of the Later Zhou Dynasty is not important to the crossing team, they focus on how many allies they can find for themselves in the Youyun region, and whether they can rely on this battle to lay a solid and stable foundation for the future development of the crossing team, rather than how much "cheapness" the Later Zhou army will take from their own actions - not to mention whether these "cheap" Later Zhou troops can really take advantage of it is difficult to say.

Since that Ningzhou Assassin Wang Hong is already a quasi-ally on his side, then the next thing will be easy to do. Therefore, after receiving Xu Shao'an's second telegram, the committee sent a report to Xu Shao'an, informing him of the situation of the Qianning Army and its assassin Wang Hong, and on the other hand, asked Zhong Youpeng to go to the Qianning Army again to communicate with Wang Hong of the Assassin Shi on the matter of surrendering to Cheng, so as to turn the first battle of the Battle of Youyun from a life-and-death battle into a happy cooperation.

Although it has only been less than two months since the end of the "Huanyun Persuasion Tour" to go out again, for Zhong Youpeng, who is already in his fifties, his body will be a little unbearable. But when Wang Kunjun personally came to the door to invite him to go out again, Zhong Youpeng still agreed very happily, and said that since he had been the liaison envoy of the "Qingyuan" brothers and the "Flying Dragon Army", he should do his best to do a good job for everyone, and a little tiring carriage and horses are nothing.

Zhong Youpeng is indeed a person who can say and do, he only got Wang Kunjun's orders the day before, and the next day he began to arrange carriages and horses to prepare for the Qianning army to go south. However, considering that as the Hou Zhou army left Kaifeng and went north, the atmosphere in the land of clouds gradually became tense, and some small people, bandits and grass cowards and others began to become ready to move, and often appeared in relatively prosperous areas where they rarely set foot in the past, and did some robbery while the fire was burning, so increasing the protection of Liliang around Zhong Youpeng was an inevitable result. Therefore, unlike the previous "Huanyun Persuasion Tour" Zhong Youpeng, who only had four personal guards around him to provide personal protection, this time the security work was completed by Wang Feng himself. Moreover, in addition to the 12 fully armed guards who even brought light machine guns, Wang Feng also carried a radio station with him at any time to get in touch with "Liangyuan" and Xu Shao'an and report the news.

On the second day of the second month of the second lunar month in the ninth year of the Liao Ying calendar (the sixth year of the Later Zhou Xiande), Zhong Youpeng bid farewell to his family who had only been reunited for two months under the escort of Wang Feng and twelve personal guards, left the "Liangyuan", and went to the Qianning Army more than 300 miles away.