The day after Zhang Yongde issued a letter against the rebellion, that is, on the twenty-ninth day of the first month of the lunar calendar of the ninth year of Xiande, the news reached Kaifeng City. The reaction of the Later Zhou court to this so-called "rebellion document," which was tantamount to raising troops and rebelling, was swift and decisive -- in a sense, Zhang Yongde's move could actually be regarded as what the Later Zhou court was expecting when it was bent on cutting down the feudal towns and separating them and solving the problem of local governors supporting their own troops. Therefore, only an hour after the text was sent to the palace, the Later Zhou court issued an edict announcing that Zhang Yongde and his followers were rebellious to the imperial court, and appointed Zhao Kuangyin, the deputy inspector of the front division of the palace, as the deployment of the rebel capital, and led a total of 70,000 horses of the front division of the palace and the pro-army division of the guards to immediately go north to crusade against the traitor Zhang Yongde and his comrades. In addition, the Later Zhou court also issued an edict to the local governors of the military states around Zhang Yongde's Zhenning army, such as the envoys, defense history, and assassin history, asking them to cooperate with the imperial court's conquest - although the Later Zhou court was well aware that it was almost impossible for these military states to send troops to fight side by side with the imperial court's rebellious army, but could only adopt a neutral attitude. However, this will is not only the due reaction of the imperial court, but also a warning to other military states, but it cannot be omitted.

The reaction of the Later Zhou court was naturally expected by Zhang Yongde, so after receiving the news that the imperial court had sent Zhao Kuangyin to lead the army north to conquer himself, he did not panic, but according to his previous jihuahaode strategy, while dispatching troops and strengthening the city defense, he immediately sent people to the Beiping Army, and sent an order to Zhang Neng, who temporarily stayed there to take on liaison duties, ordering him to immediately inform the Beiping Army of the situation of his own side and the imperial court, and urge the Beiping Army to immediately send troops south according to the original agreement. Help him fight against the imperial court's conquest army.

After receiving Zhang Yongde's order, Zhang Neng, who knew that the matter was very important, naturally did not dare to slack off, and even went to the Beiping Military Festival Mansion to ask for Wang Kunjun and others. Unexpectedly, he was full of expectations, but he got a news that he couldn't believe - the three leaders of the Beiping Army, the Jiedu envoy, the deputy envoy, and the Jiedu judge, who spoke the most effectively and were also the most aware of the alliance between the two sides, were not in the house. Among them, Jiedu envoy Wang Kunjun left the city seven days ago to inspect Taiyuan Mansion, Jiedu deputy envoy Xu Shaoan went to Jinzhou to inspect the border defense on the fifth day, and Jiedu Judge Zhang Weixin went to Dagu Port three days ago to reward the officers and men of the Beiping Army.

After hearing the reply from Deng An, the head of the Jiedu Mansion, who had come out to inform him, Zhang Neng only felt that his head was "buzzing", and he was stunned. His first reaction was that God was dissatisfied with his uncle's rebellion, and deliberately created some trouble to obstruct his uncle's actions. And his second reaction was that their old Zhang family was deceived by the bastards of the Beiping Army, and the other party's alliance with his side was fake, and it was true to use the power of the Later Zhou Dynasty to get rid of his own big opponent.

If the first reaction just made Zhang Neng feel a little weak, then as soon as the second reaction came out, it immediately scared this guy into a cold sweat. Especially after he recovered from the initial panic, the more he thought about it, the more he felt that his judgment was correct. First, from the time he reached an alliance with the Beiping Army and an agreement to borrow troops, to his uncle's issuance of the document "Qing Jun's side, eliminate traitors", it was not even a month. If the Beiping Army really wants to help its side enter Kaifeng, it is bound to pay attention to every move of Lanzhou and Kaifeng, and it is bound to be ready to raise troops to the south at any time. At such an important and tense moment, how could several leaders of the Beiping Army leave Beiping City and go hundreds or even thousands of miles away to inspect and reward Laoshizi. Second, now that I think about it carefully, I have been fighting with the Beiping Army for so many years, especially when my sister-in-law and boss Zhang Yan indirectly killed Fan Wucheng, one of the brothers of "Qingyuan", but the other party readily agreed to his proposal to form an alliance and borrow troops, which in itself is unreasonable. It is only to blame that he and his uncle were too eager to form an alliance with a strong opponent like the Beiping Army to deal with the tightening rope of the imperial court around their necks, and ignored, or rather did not want to admit the risks and pitfalls.

Thinking of this, Zhang Neng not only regretted it, but also was pessimistic about the prospects of the Zhang family and himself. After all, without the powerful foreign aid of the Beiping Army, there was almost no chance of victory on the side of the imperial court - otherwise, it would be impossible for his uncle to risk an alliance with the Beiping Army. However, regret is regret, and the current situation cannot be delayed any longer. He first went to the Yamen of the Governor of Beiping Mansion to buy Zhao Dawei with the idea of trying it out. Although Zhao Dawei did not disappear like his brothers, he was soon received. But the outcome of the meeting between the two sides is conceivable. Zhao Dawei was first surprised and surprised by the alliance between the two sides and the borrowing of troops, saying that he knew nothing about it, and several brothers had not revealed anything to him at all. Then, he expressed his powerlessness in response to Zhang Neng's request that he could mobilize the Beiping army or even the soldiers and horses of Beiping City to go south first to cheer up his uncle and give the Later Zhou court a deterrent. Because as the prefect of Beiping Prefecture, he only has the authority to manage the civil affairs of his own prefecture, but he does not have any right to command and mobilize the army. And the elder brothers asked him to temporarily take charge of the official affairs of the Beiping Army, which was limited to the civil affairs, and the military power was still in charge of the general soldiers of each town, and he had no right to meddle at all -- in fact, Zhao Dawei did not fool Zhang Neng at this point, as far as the division of responsibilities between the crossing team and the Beiping Army was concerned, as a civilian official, he could indeed only mobilize the police and non-military liliang such as the "chengguan team" in the area under his jurisdiction, but did not have the right to mobilize and command the army.

Seeing that this Zhao Governor's request for himself was just prevaricating and perfunctory, Zhang Neng believed in the correctness of his previous judgment even more. The only way to do this is to report the situation on the side of the Beiping Army to my uncle as soon as possible, so that he can make plans in advance.

After getting the news from Zhang Neng, Zhang Yongde's reaction can be imagined. Remorse, self-blame, anger, hatred, and so on. It's just that there is no regret medicine sold on this shijie. No matter what his mood is now, the predicament faced by himself and the Zhang family must be solved and dealt with. Therefore, after scolding the Beiping Army and Zhang Neng, the nephew of the clan who suggested to him to join forces with the Beiping Army, countless times in his heart, Zhang Yongde still had to put his mind back to the issue of confrontation with the imperial army.

After some weighing and consideration, Zhang Yongde decided to give up his previous plan to stick to the city, and instead took the initiative to attack, taking advantage of the opportunity when the imperial court's conquest army came from afar, the people were sleepy, and the foothold was unstable, and led his own troops and horses to raid it, disrupting its deployment and hitting the morale of its army, so as to increase the determination and belief of his own soldiers to fight the opponent to the end.

Zhang Yongde's vision is naturally haode, but as the saying goes, "the ideal is beautiful haode, and the reality is cruel". In the face of the surging Hou Zhou elite forbidden army led by Zhao Kuangyin, who was as experienced in a hundred battles as him, and was both wise and brave, even if Zhang Yongde was able to fight and fight well, how could he defeat the other party with his rabble composed of local feudal soldiers and temporarily recruited young people. As a result, from the beginning of February to the middle of February of the lunar calendar, the Zhenning army led by Zhang Yongde was defeated in three battles. Not only did they fail to repel the conquest army of the Later Zhou court, but they lost their troops and demoralized. What made Zhang Yongde's situation even worse was that Zhang Cunxin, another titular son who was responsible for defending Huazhou, saw that he was losing and retreating, and he was not an opponent of the court at all. As a result, under the persuasion of Zhang Yan's brother Zhang Fei, who had completely lost confidence and trust in Zhang Yongde, decided to leave Zhang Yongde Group, switched to Zhao Kuangyin's group, and secretly went to Huazhou as a lobbyist in order to present a meeting gift to the other party, Zhang Cunxin immediately defected and surrendered to Zhao Kuangyin with his brother-in-law. As a result, Zhang Yongde had to rely on a lonely city to fight against the much more powerful Later Zhou court.

On the eighteenth day of the second lunar month of the ninth year of Xiande, Zhao Kuangyin led the rebellious army of the Later Zhou court to arrive at the city of Lanzhou and surrounded this lonely city.