In the early morning of the 15th day of the eighth month of the lunar calendar of the eighth year of Xiande, the cavalry regiment of the first division of the "Flying Dragon Army" escorted the grain and grass collected from Quannong and Wending back to the camp of the Northern Expeditionary Army under Dading City, with Zeng Zhilin's order, inspired by the slogan of capturing Dading City for the Mid-Autumn Festival, the attack of the Northern Expeditionary Army of the Beiping Army on Dading City officially began.

This is a city attack and defense battle without any suspense, in the face of the disparity in equipment, although there are more than 30,000 Khitan troops in Dading City, it is useless for heroes. Those Khitan generals who bravely rushed to the head of the city and prepared to resist the attack of the Beiping army on the head of the city did not play any role except to become victims of the opponent's artillery fire and increase their own casualties. About half an hour after the bombardment began, the south gate of Dading City stubbornly withstood several rounds of siege artillery attacks and finally collapsed, and the outcome of the attack and defense of Dading City was doomed. Although part of the Khitan army in the city stubbornly launched street battles after the city was broken, it caused some trouble and casualties to the Beiping army that rushed into the city. But first, the Khitan generals who had the courage to engage in street battles and fight to the death with the Beiping army were a minority after all, and they could not reverse the fact that Dading City was conquered by the Beiping army. Second, the Han people in the city, the common people of Kun, have had enough of the harassment and bullying of the Khitan defenders in the city in the past few days, and they are also doing their best to provide all kinds of help to the Beiping army, leading the way, indicating where the enemy is hiding, and so on -- the Beiping army has been like a bamboo all the way since the northern expedition, which has made the Khitan defenders in Zhongjing Province lose face and feel resentment. Coupled with the Northern Expeditionary Army's previous handling of the Khitan people in various states and counties along the way, the Khitan soldiers were even more indignant. Now that the city is besieged and isolated, the reinforcements are stagnant in Enzhou, and they are reluctant to go south to rescue, the bad mood of the Khitan defenders in Dading City can be imagined, and it is not surprising that the Khitan soldiers in the city will relieve this bad mood and sprinkle the depression in their chests on the Han people in the city. It's just that in this way, the Khitan army, which has lost the convenience of time and place, finally lost even the people, and if it is not defeated, then there is really no heavenly reason.

On the evening of the 15th day of the eighth month of the lunar calendar of the eighth year of Xiande, a stubborn Khitan defender was wiped out, and Dading City was completely controlled by the Beiping Army. On the evening of the same day, the city of Dading was lit up with lights, singing and dancing, and the Han people in the city and the soldiers of Beiping gathered together to spend the Mid-Autumn Festival and enjoy the full moon together, even if the moonlight was not actually bright because of the cloudy day. If it weren't for the broken city walls, the collapsed city gates, the houses at the foot of the city walls that had unfortunately been turned into piles of rubble by artillery fire, and the bloodstains in the city that had been washed away but still left obvious traces, it would be hard to believe that a major battle had just taken place here that lasted for nearly a day.

Just when the Beiping army and the local Han people in Dading City were happy to celebrate the Mid-Autumn Festival, in the city of Enhua, Enzhou Prefecture, 60 miles to the north, Yelu Yi Lage, the commander of the Khitan reinforcements, and the 60,000 troops under his command did not have any mood for the festival. At this moment, while paying attention to the news sent by the meteor scout, they were preparing to pull out the camp and retreat overnight.

Early this morning, the Beiping army had just begun to attack the city, and the Khitan reinforcements' horse scouts immediately sent the news back to the tent of Yelu Yilag in Enhua City as quickly as possible. Yelu Yilage, who received the news, immediately sent additional horses to probe horses and meteors to probe the battle situation ahead, and at the same time began to think about what should happen to the army in his hands, which can be regarded as the current mobile force of the Great Liao Imperial Court.

At this time, there are only two choices for Yelu Yilag. One option is to immediately send reinforcements south, take advantage of the fact that the Beiping army is attacking the city with all its might, and insert a knife from its back, striving to break the opponent's encirclement of Dading City. If it was not the Beiping army besieging the city, but other opponents, such a choice was undoubtedly the most correct. But now Yelu Yi Lage is facing the Beiping Army, the Beiping Army that is invincible in front of the Liao Army, and the Beiping Army that has staged many sieges and reinforcements, and ambushes and interceptions "good shows" on the way. Although Tanma had not found any signs of an ambush on the way from Enhua to Dading, Yelu Yilag did not have the courage to take this risk. After all, Yelu Tart Lie also didn't find any enemy situation before he was ambushed, didn't he still fall into the ambush of the Beiping army, and took the lives of himself and more than 20,000 nearly 30,000 soldiers for this?

Another option is to retreat northward, taking advantage of the fact that the attention of the Beiping army is in Dadingcheng, immediately lead his men and horses to withdraw from Enhua and return to Shangjing Road, in order to avoid the enemy's edge and preserve strength. Although this is the safest and safest way, it can ensure the safety of this team in your hands. But once he abandons Dading City and retreats north, he is likely to attract the emperor's dissatisfaction and suspicion of him, and then he will lose his official position at least and his life will be difficult to protect. After all, the task given to him by the emperor was to reinforce Dadingcheng, not to preserve the strength of this army in his hands - even if this was already a mobile liliang that the Great Liao Imperial Court could assemble in the short term. If this force was also defeated by the Beiping army, the emperor would have to send the 50,000 leather room palace tent troops around him, who were responsible for the safety of the camp, to fight the Beiping army.

After thinking about it and weighing it left and right for a while, Yelu Yilage finally decided to save Daliao Zuihou a little mobile liliang as the first task, and took advantage of the fierce battle of Dading City to lead the army to evacuate Enhua and return to Shangjing Road to make plans again. However, considering the strength of the Beiping army, it should not take too long to conquer Dading City, and the speed of action of tens of thousands of people on his side will definitely not be too fast. Therefore, while ordering the main force of the army under his command to pull out the camp and prepare to return north, he also ordered one of his deputy generals surnamed Xiao to lead 10,000 horses not to retreat but to advance, and to go straight to Dading City from Enhua, making a feint posture to rescue Dading City, and to gain more ample time for the withdrawal of the main force -- in Yelu Yi Lage's view, the "big gift" of 10,000 horses on his side to the Beiping army was not only to consume a certain amount of troops to encircle and annihilate these 10,000 people, but also to spend a certain amount of time and troops to collect and detain the captives who might be thousands of people. In this way, there should be hope that he and the main force will buy more than half a day, so that his retreat to the north will be safer and more secure.

Deputy General Xiao, who was asked to lead his army south to carry out a feint attack, was quite dissatisfied with Yelu Yilage's order, which was basically tantamount to sending him to death. But as the so-called "military orders are like mountains", he, the deputy general, was no longer willing to carry out this task, which could be regarded as a life-and-death task, so he could only take it head-on. Otherwise, what awaits him will be a military lawyer--although with his position, Yelu Yilag cannot correct himself on the spot, but it is entirely possible that when the other party returns to Shangjing Province to face the saint, he will put the responsibility for the failure of the rescue and the loss of the city on his own head, and kill himself with the emperor's sword.

Although it is basically a road to death, Vice General Xiao will not send his neck to the knife edge of the Beiping Army in such a stupid manner. After he led his army to leave Enhua City on the afternoon of August 15, he sent a large number of scouts and horsemen to pay attention to the situation in Dading City, and at the same time ordered his 10,000 horses to slow down the march as much as possible, intending to immediately turn around and run back as soon as there was news that Dading had broken the city or that the Beiping army had divided its troops to block him, and to chase after Yelu Yilage, who was estimated to have begun to retreat at this time. As for how to explain after going back, Vice General Xiao has already thought of his rhetoric, thinking that he can completely use the fierceness and strength of the Beiping army, and it is difficult for his 10,000 horses to be independent, so he has to fight and retreat to prevaricate in the past -- after all, disobeying military orders and refusing to go out of the battle is a crime of killing the head, but it is willing to resist the enemy and lead the army to retreat.

Although it may be a bit wrong to describe Vice General Xiao's marching speed as slower than a snail, the 10,000 horses under his command are indeed not much faster than turtles. The troops walked for a whole afternoon, and by the time they set up camp in the evening, they were only ten miles away from Enhua City—even so, Vice Admiral Xiao thought that they had gone a little fast, which made it more difficult for him to chase the main force of Yelu Yilag in the future.

Although today is the Mid-Autumn Festival on August 15, it is not suitable for moon viewing when we catch up with the "clouds covering the moon". Second, the anxiety about his future also made Vice General Xiao have no intention of celebrating the festival - not to mention that the war is imminent, and it is not a good time to relax at all. Just when Vice General Xiao was sitting alone in the tent, secretly thinking about whether to slow down the pace of movement tomorrow and leave more time for himself to retreat, the personal soldiers in charge of duty outside the big tent came in to report that the scout cavalry who went to Dading City to investigate had brought important military information. When Vice General Xiao heard this, he stood up and hurriedly ordered his soldiers to bring the scout into the tent and talk back.

After repeatedly confirming that Dading City had indeed been captured by the Beiping Army, Vice General Xiao was both surprised and delighted. Surprisingly, it only took about a day for the Beiping army to capture and completely control Dading City, which was guarded by more than 30,000 horses; Happily, with the destruction of Dading City by the Beiping Army, the reinforcement task he undertook no longer exists, and he can immediately turn around and return to Enhua, or simply go directly to the main force led by the coach Yelu Yi Lage. And with the news of Dading's destruction of the city, Vice General Xiao was faced with a choice - whether to immediately pull out the camp and retreat north, or stay here for one night and lead the army to leave early tomorrow morning?

It stands to reason that since it has been determined that Dading City has been captured, it is natural to retreat as soon as possible, so as not to be attacked and pursued by the Beiping army during the long night, and then he will not be able to leave if he wants to. But the problem was that it was late at night, and the moonlight was not bright because of the clouds, so it was not at all suitable for a large army to travel overnight - for the ancients, who had night blindness because of vitamin deficiencies, it was very difficult to march at night, especially when the moonlight was obviously insufficient. What's more, at this time, the army has already camped and rested, and if the withdrawal of the army is suddenly announced, those generals who are as anxious and unconfident as themselves about the upcoming battle with the Beiping army are likely to think that their camp has been attacked by the Beiping army and are in chaos when they hear the retreat order at first glance. In that case, even if there is no evil result of the "camp roar", the entire army will fall into a state of chaos, or even complete collapse. So, after careful weighing and discussion with his generals and strategists, Vice General Xiao finally decided to rest in place for the night, and then withdraw his camp to the north early the next morning.

Fortunately for the Mid-Autumn Festival night of 15 August, the night of the Mid-Autumn Festival passed safely in anxiety and anxiety, and the Beiping Army did not take advantage of the power of Dading to launch an attack on this reinforcement from the north. It's just that Fortunately, Vice General Xiao and his hands don't think that the god of luck will always favor them, and they have to plan for the worst in everything. Therefore, they did not dare to continue to stay in this place where there was no village and no store in the future. With the order of Deputy General Xiao, the whole army pulled out the camp and set up the village as fast as possible, and retreated in the direction of Enhua City at a gallop.

It was the same ten miles away, and it was the same army of 10,000 soldiers and horses, they walked for a whole afternoon yesterday, but today it took less than an hour to enter the gate of Enhua City. After entering the city, Vice General Xiao only inquired about the time and direction of the retreat of Yelu Yi Lage's troops from the defenders in the city, and then led his own horses directly through the city, along the official road in the north of the city, and rushed all the way to the direction of Yelu's northern retreat.

Out of Enhua City, seventy miles to the north is Lengshuigou. And out of the cold water ditch, you can go to Songshan in the west and Gaozhou in the east. Walking further north from Gaozhou, we entered the territory of Shangjing Province. Once you enter the Kamikyo Road, you basically leave the mountainous and hilly area and enter the grassland. When he got there, even if the Beiping army caught up, unless he had tens of thousands or even hundreds of thousands of troops, it would be difficult to encircle the Liao army as it did in the mountainous areas.

Thinking that as long as he passed through Lengshuigou and Gaozhou at the fastest speed, he could completely get rid of the fate of being caught up and surrounded by the Beiping Army, Vice General Xiao was full of hope. On the one hand, he ordered his troops to speed up the march, and on the other hand, he sent scouts to rush to the front with fast horses, hoping to catch up with the main force of Yelu Yilag.

When they reached about thirty miles away from Lengshuigou, the team that had been advancing quickly suddenly slowed down. Vice General Xiao couldn't help but be angry when he saw this, and immediately ordered his own soldiers to go to the front army to inquire about the situation. As a result, without waiting for the pro-soldiers to lead the order forward, a former army herald to rush to Vice General Xiao on horseback and hurriedly reported: "General Yu, according to the reconnaissance cavalry, the army led by Marshal Yelu was ambushed in Lengshuigou and suffered heavy losses, and now the rout is pouring towards our army. Once the two armies meet, our army will inevitably be scattered by the rout, which is quite unfavorable to our army. The former army general asked the general to ask for instructions from his humble position, whether to avoid or disperse, and hoped to make a decision as soon as possible. ”