The capture of Gu'an did not mean that Zhang Zangying and Xu Shao'an and other vanguard generals could sit back and wait for Chai Rong to reward them, and they were only slightly relieved when they led the army into Gu'an City, and there were still many things they needed to do next. Clearing out the remnants of the enemy who were still stubbornly resisting in the city, calming the people in the city who were nervous and uneasy due to the fierce battles for days, and repairing the southern city wall that had been bombarded beyond recognition by their own artillery and ballistae, everything required Zhang and Xu to either send people or do it personally.

Of course, before doing these things, Zhang and Xu's first priority was to immediately send someone to deliver a letter to Chai Rong, on the one hand, to report to their lord, and on the other hand, to ask Chai Tianzi to speed up the march of the army, and strive to reach the county seat of Gu'an before the arrival of Xiao Siwen's army. Otherwise, Zhang and Xu would have to face each other's army of more than 80,000 people with less than 15,000 tired soldiers, especially under the premise that the people in the city did not have much favor for the Zhou army, and this situation of being outnumbered would be even more unfavorable to the vanguard troops -- many of the Liao soldiers defending the city were locals, and after two days of fierce fighting, the vanguard troops could not expect their relatives and friends to be grateful to the Zhou army and welcome them like the people of the prefectures and counties who had directly surrendered to Kaicheng. Therefore, in the recital that Zhang and Zhou Erren wrote to Chai Rong, the proportion of the part that reported victory was much less than the part that asked Chai Tianzi to enter the army as soon as possible. Of course, Zhang and Xu did not pin all their hopes on Chai Rong's rapid march. While writing the memo, they sent a large number of scouts and scouts to the north to explore the movements of the Liao army, and on the other hand, they arranged for the army to strengthen their vigilance, always ready to resist the attack of the main force of the Youyun Liao army led by Xiao Siwen.

As it turned out, the decision to send a large number of scouts and scouts to the north was correct. The scouts of the Zhou army soon discovered the Liao army's remote scout horses about thirty miles north of Gu'an City, and engaged in a brief engagement. Moreover, after losing a few small troops, the originally scattered Zhou army reconnaissance cavalry gathered into several larger detachments, and carried out a relatively large encirclement and suppression of the Liao army wandering in the north of Gu'an City. Although the Liao army's long-distance scout horses were good at discovering the traces of a large number of enemy troops, the Zhou army's reconnaissance and cavalry brigade that went to encircle and suppress failed to wipe out all these long-distance scouts, but after killing and wounding several people, the Liao army's long-distance scouts and horses retreated quickly, and the Zhou army's reconnaissance cavalry was also considered to have achieved battlefield blocking, so that the Liao army could no longer explore the movements of the Zhou army at close range in a short time.

However, while the Zhou army scouts successfully blocked the battlefield, Zhang Zangying and Xu Shaoan also realized one thing, that is, with the appearance of the Khitan people blocking the spy horses, the main force of the Youyun Liao army was not far from Gu'an City. According to the Liao army's habit of using distant scout horses, it was generally twenty to thirty miles in front of the main force of the Liao army. That is to say, if calculated according to the worst-case scenario, the main force of the Youyun Liao army has now advanced to a distance of fifty to sixty miles from Gu'an City. Fortunately, it was getting late at this time, even if Xiao Siwen had the intention of recapturing Gu'an City before the main force of the Zhou army arrived after receiving the news that Gu'an City had been conquered, so as to confront the main force of the Zhou army in the city, it was unlikely that he would order his brigade to march long distances at night, and then take advantage of the opportunity of the Zhou army's unstable foothold and weak city defense to attack the city. The most likely thing Xiao Siwen did was to send a small force to attack the Zhou army by taking advantage of the favorable conditions that the Zhou army did not dare to leave the city easily in the darkness of the night. Even if the harassing Liao army was unable to capture Gu'an City, its attack on the city would be able to cause serious interference to the Zhou army to appease the people in the city and repair the damaged city walls, and create more favorable conditions for the siege of the city after the arrival of its main force -- judging from the current situation, it is more likely that the main force of the Youyun Liao army will rush to the city of Gu'an before the main force of the Zhou army.

Therefore, while ordering scouts and scouts to strengthen patrols and scouts, and to ensure that the Liao army's distant scouts and horses had the opportunity to approach Gu'an City, Zhang Zangying and Xu Shao'an also urged their subordinates to step up the repair of the damaged city wall, and commanded the soldiers and servants of the "Shenji Army" to transport the artillery, ballistae and other large firearms of the "Shenji Army" to the city wall one by one and place them properly, making it a powerful help to resist the attack of the Khitans.

The work of reinforcing the city defenses was carried out all night, and almost all the generals and soldiers of the Zhou army, including Zhang Zangying and Xu Shao'an, did not sleep all night, and the vast majority of them did not hurry up and go back to their tents to take a nap until the relevant work was basically finished in the early hours of the morning. However, unlike other generals who fell asleep after entering the tent, Xu Shao'an did not rest immediately after returning to his residence in the Yanei of Gu'an County, but wrote a telegram draft of the situation inside and outside the city after today's siege and breach, the news that Zhou Lang and other personal guards and guards were not killed, and their judgment on the movement of Xiao Siwen's army, and ordered the telegraph operator to send it to the committee immediately -- the situation was more urgent, and Xiao Siwen's army could appear under Gu'an City at any time, Xu Shao'an did not wait until dawn to send the report, He was sure that the brothers of the Committee would understand him even if they were woken from their sleep. ,

However, to Hsu's surprise, unlike the previous telegrams, which were received soon after they were sent, this time the committee's reply was particularly slow, and the telegrams sent out in the early hours of the morning did not receive a reply until midnight. On the contrary, shortly after dawn, he received a telegram from Wang Feng, who was in the Southern Route Army. It is estimated that the radio station of the Southern Route Army received the telegram signal from Xu Shao'an's side, or the committee forwarded the relevant news to Wang Feng, in short, it can be seen from Wang Feng's call back that he already knew the news that Zhou Lang and others were safe and sound. In the reply, Wang Feng expressed his gratitude to Xu Shaoan for taking Zhou Sanlang and others in his camp and allowing them to participate in the Zhou army's capture of Gu'an City. On the other hand, Wang Feng did not express any opinion on the question of the stay of Zhou Lang and others, but hoped that Xu Shaoan could follow the committee's arrangements and not have to worry about his own feelings.

Wang Feng's statement seems to be unsympathetic to Zhou Lang and other brothers who were born and died for him, but in fact it is also reasonable. The crossing team as a group naturally has its own rules for its operation. It is said that people like Zhou Lang and others are either personal guards who have direct contact with the traverser, or guards who are involved in the secret intelligence agency "Dark Feather", even if they are ordinary soldiers in the "Flying Dragon Army" and "Security Army", or ordinary craftsmen in the production base, as long as they leave their posts for more than 24 hours without asking their superiors for leave in advance, then before they return to their original posts, they must accept and pass the examination of the Internal Affairs Section of the Ministry of Intelligence. Although Zhou Lang and the others could not be regarded as leaving their posts without asking for leave in advance, after all, they did not return to their posts in time after completing the set tasks, but stayed outside for eight days. Although there are objective reasons for their non-return, the review that should be carried out should be carried out in accordance with the rules. In this way, it can not only ensure the safety of the crossing team, but also maintain the authority of the rules and regulations of the crossing team, which is conducive to the management and development of the whole team. Xu Shaoan naturally understood Wang Feng's thoughts at this time, so after receiving the telegram from the other party, he did not feel that there was anything wrong with his twenty-seventh brother doing this, but secretly praised his brother for being much more mature, no longer doing things as noisy and lacking stability as before.

Xu Shaoan and Cheng Fei waited until close to noon for the committee's call back to be belated. In the reply, the committee first congratulated Xu Shaoan on his capture of Gu'an City. Secondly, it was for Xu Shaoan to convey the committee's order to Zhou Zhoulang and others, asking them to set off immediately, return to the "cool garden" as soon as possible, and wait for the committee's arrangements. Again, it was to inform Xu Shao'an of the advance of the north and south armies of the crossing team, and told him that the northern route army had successfully moved to the left of Youzhou City, and the southern route army also successfully approached Xiao Siwen's army, and when the time was ripe, he would give it a fatal blow. The committee said in the telegram that after the report of the scouts of the Southern Route Army, Xiao Siwen's army had changed its habit of setting up camp in the evening and setting off at dawn since it had set up camp in Baoxingzhuang, 50 miles away from Gu'an City, last night, and did not have any intention of setting up camp until close to noon, and did not seem to be in a hurry to go south to recapture the county seat of Gu'an.

Xiao Siwen's move may be a good thing for the crossing team, because it is conducive to achieving its combat goal of destroying the enemy in the field. But for Xu Shaoan, he was puzzled, and it was difficult to figure out the reason why the other party did this for a while. In this case, Xu Shao'an could only hope that the committee would be able to provide him with more information, in addition to relaying the relevant news to Zhang Zangying, who would send additional scouts to get as close as possible to the Liao army camp and further strengthen the city defense of Gu'an City.

As a result, from the afternoon onwards, the number of scouts and scouts sent by the Zhou army increased significantly, and the scope of its expedition became larger and larger, and the distance from the Liao army camp became closer and closer. And Zhou Lang and the others, who had received the order for the committee to return immediately, also bid farewell to Xu Shao'an and Cheng Fei, rode the horses provided by Xu Shao'an for them, mixed in the middle of the scouts who galloped out of the Zhou army camp, bypassed the Baoxingzhuang area where the Liao army camp was located, and galloped towards the direction of Xiayunling, which was a hundred miles away.