After taking Zezhou, the Beiping Army's Left Route Army of the Northern Expedition only took a short rest and replenished the necessary grain and grass, and then continued to set off to the northeast under the leadership of Zeng Zhilin and entered Yuzhou. Because before the arrival of Zeng Zhilin's troops, the Khitan army from Zezhou had already lost Zezhou, the army was scattered, and Xiao Haili's whereabouts were unknown-Xiao Kehan was not the only one who knew that Xiao Haili had arrived to observe the situation of the Beiping Army, and other senior generals were also notified in advance. So when the army was defeated and retreated to Zezhou City, but no trace of Xiao Haili was found, these senior generals judged that their commander was only afraid that he was already more than lucky. But after all, this is just speculation, before seeing the body of his own commander or getting the exact news from the Beiping Army, he can only announce that Xiao Haili's whereabouts are unknown, and it cannot be said that he has been martyred - it has been transmitted to Yuzhou. Therefore, before Zeng Zhilin's department arrived, the state governance of Yuzhou and the cities were already panicked and chaotic. When the horse was reported that the Beiping army was approaching, the Khitans in the city could no longer sit still. Whether it is a noble official or a flat-headed common people, all the Khitan people are like frightened birds, and they flee from Hezhong City with their families. Some went to Dading Mansion, while others simply went to Huizhou, Wu'an Prefecture, and even the road to Beijing further north, just hoping to get as far away as possible from the Beiping army that was asking for their lives. The Han officials and people in the city opened the city gate as if they were celebrating the New Year, and beat gongs and drums to welcome Zeng Zhilin's troops into the city, and Yuzhou was won without a fight.

After taking Yuzhou without bloodshed, Zeng Zhilin was not in a hurry to continue to go north to Dadingfu, but on the one hand ordered his army to rest and recuperate, and on the other hand sent a telegram to the Yellow Sea on the Jinzhou side, asking him to immediately get in touch with Muttel and ask the latter to suspend the attack and harass in the Khitan Tokyo Road, and immediately advance westward according to the original plan, and attack the Dading Mansion with him, and eliminate the Khitan reinforcements coming from Shangjing Road as much as possible, so that the Khitans will not be able to compete for those states and counties in Zhongjing Road that have been recovered by the Beiping Army for a certain period of time. This gave the Beiping Army enough time to digest and consolidate the newly acquired land.

After receiving a telegram from the Yellow Sea asking him to withdraw his troops as soon as possible and march west to Dadingfu, he was rampage in the Khitan Tokyo Road, showing off his might, forcing the Khitan defenders in various states and counties to dare not even go out of the city gate, although a hundred people were unwilling, but they did not dare to disobey the military order. This guy led his troops to demonstrate outside Liaoyang Mansion for a circle, and after bluffing the Khitan officials and generals in the city, he immediately turned around and returned west, passing through Jinzhou, along the line of Andezhou and Jianzhou to the direction of Dading Mansion, leaving the Khitan Tokyo Road that had been tossed by him to the Zuo Prime Minister of the Tokyo Prime Minister's Mansion and Han Deshu, the Duke of Yueguo, to clean up this mess.

In the same way, Muttel's westward journey to Dading Mansion this time was much easier and smoother than last month. On the one hand, this time he was not alone, he was echoed by the Left Route Army of the Northern Expedition led by Zeng Zhilin, and he had just shown his ability and majesty in the Khitan Tokyo Road, and the morale and fighting spirit of the soldiers were much higher than the last westward advance. On the other hand, after Zeng Zhilin led the left route army out of Gubeikou, it was like a bamboo, conquering the important towns of Khitan Prefecture one after another, and the defenders of Khitan Zhongjing Road in the first battle of Zezhou suffered large losses, and the commander Xiao Haili was even more trapped in the chaos of the army, life and death were uncertain, and the reinforcements of the imperial court were still on the way to Dading Mansion at this time, and it was impossible to arrive for a while. All this made the former deputy general Xiao Haili, who temporarily acted as the commander of the Zhongjing Provincial Army, have no bottom in his heart. Therefore, in order to embolden himself, while collecting the defeated troops from Zezhou and Yuzhou, he also transferred a large number of defenders from Jianzhou and Ande Prefecture to Dadingfu to assist in the defense, so that the troops of the two states were empty, and they could not resist the attack of Muter's troops head-on, nor did they have extra troops to invest in the small force of troops and horses that proved very effective in the last battle to stop Mutel. In this way, Muttel not only arrived at the city of Dadingfu at the agreed time very smoothly, but also took Ande Prefecture and Jianzhou on the way, and planted the banner of the Beiping Army on the head of the city of the two states.

On the seventh day of the eighth lunar month of the eighth year of Xiande, the Left Route Army of the Northern Expedition led by Zeng Zhilin and the cavalry unit of the Right Route Army of the Northern Expedition led by Mutel met under the city of Dadingfu and launched the siege of Dading City, the most important city of the Northern Expedition.

Although with his own troops under the city of Dading, Zeng Zhilin was completely sure that he would take this city, which can be called the largest city in the Khitan Zhongjing Road within a day or two, in fact, it was much smaller and shorter than the ordinary state city in the Central Plains, one of the three major capital cities of the Khitan - with the return of the sixteen states of Youyun to the Han regime, the Youdu Mansion in Nanjing has long ceased to exist, and the Datong Mansion in Xijing has become the jurisdiction of the Beiping Army, and the Khitan now only has the three capitals of Shang, East and Central. Considering that the biggest purpose of his northern expedition was to weaken the strength of the Khitans as much as possible and ensure the safety and stability of the northern border of the Beiping Army, Zeng Zhilin, Mutel and others were not in a hurry to attack the city, but adopted the method of encircling but not fighting, attracting Khitan reinforcements to continue to go south, and creating favorable conditions for their own side to annihilate a large number of enemies.

Zeng Zhilin and Mutel looked forward to the Khitan reinforcements appearing soon under the city of Dading, so as to end the northern expedition as soon as possible, so that the crossing team could concentrate on dealing with the possible turmoil and changes in the Later Zhou court. The commander of Yelu Yilage, who could lead a patchwork of 70,000 reinforcements, was moving more and more slowly, especially after receiving the news that the Beiping army had advanced to the city of Dading and surrounded the city, the speed of its southward movement was even slower, it could be said that it was as slow as a turtle. After the army arrived in Enzhou, which was seventy miles away from Dading Mansion, it simply stopped, and only sent a large number of scouts and horsemen to investigate and reconnoiter the movements of Dading Mansion every day, without the slightest intention of continuing to move south to relieve the siege of Dading.

The reason for this situation was entirely due to the caution of the commander of the reinforcements, Yelu Yilag. Although Yelu Yilag had not had any direct contact with the Beiping Army before, let alone fought with the Beiping Army. However, the Battle of Youyun two years ago, the performance of the Beiping Army when it went north to "fight the Grass Valley" in the past two years, and the opponent's achievements in the so-called "Battle of the Northern Expedition" that began last month made Yelu Yilage quite jealous of the strength and combat effectiveness of the Beiping Army. In addition, during the Battle of Youyun, the generals of the Great Liao side Yelu Enemylie, Xiao Siwen, Xiao Jixian and others, Yelu Tartlie, Xiao Haili and others in the process of the Beiping Army's northern invasion were either captured or killed, or their whereabouts are unknown, basically no army commander or brave and warlike general can retreat - although Yelu Tart Lie escaped during the Battle of Youyun, this time in Jinzhou Laohugou was not as lucky as last time, and ended up with no bones. However, it should be noted that the absence of Yelu Tart's body is not because the Beiping Army did not pay attention to battlefield etiquette, deliberately ignored Yelu Tart's identity, and did not collect the body for the other party. On that day, Yelu Tzu Lie's Chinese army commander flag was under the focus of the Beiping Army artillery who participated in the ambush, and more than a dozen shells fell almost at the same time, and Ye Lu Lie and his generals and retinue were blown to pieces, and they couldn't fight together at all, so they had to bury the wreckage that could be found together.

Therefore, in order to take into account the face of his sworn brother Emperor Yelu Jing, for the dignity of the Great Liao Imperial Court, and when all the generals in the court were unwilling to come forward to do this errand that was likely to have no return, Yelu Yi Lage, who had to take over the post of commander of the southbound reinforcements, now thinks most about how to preserve the strength of the mobile army in his hands that can be regarded as a mobile Liliang army of the Great Liao Imperial Court, and how to save his own life, rather than how to relieve the siege of Dading. How to drive the Beiping army out of Zhongjing Road, or at least to the south of Yuzhou. Since there is such an idea, it is not difficult to understand that Yelu Yilag led the army to hesitate in Enzhou.