On the 24th day of March of the lunar calendar in the nineteenth year of the Ying calendar (the seventh year of Jianlong), in the hall of the Khitan Shangjing Linhuang City and Shangjing Stay-at-Home Mansion, Han Kuangsi, who stayed in Beijing, was holding a military meeting with a group of civil and military generals to discuss how to deal with the Zhou army's northern criminals.

According to the news obtained by Tanma before, the Zhou army came all the way north, successively captured Gaozhou and Songshan Prefecture, and surrounded Yongzhou six days ago. Although after the siege of Yongzhou, the Zhou army strengthened the blockade of the battlefield and the interception of the Liao army's horses, so that the Linhuangfu side could not get further information about the battle situation in Yongzhou. However, judging from the strength comparison between the Zhou army and the Yongzhou defenders, neither Han Kuangsi nor other civil and military officials in Shangjing City thought that Xiao Daxiang could hold Yongzhou. And with the fall of Yongzhou, the next move of the Zhou army was nothing more than two directions. One is to the west, attacking Linhuang Mansion; One is to the east, directly to the emperor's spring bowl station, Changchun Prefecture Yazi River.

Although in terms of difficulty, attacking Linhuang Mansion, which is only 300 miles away from Yongzhou, should be the first choice -- Changchun Prefecture is nearly 1,000 miles away from Yongzhou. However, in terms of the impact caused, the impact of going straight to the Yazi River in Changchun Prefecture, destroying the spring bowl and even capturing or killing the Emperor of Da Liao is naturally far greater and more sensational than just capturing one capital, and the blow to Da Liao is much heavier. Therefore, as far as Han Kuangsi himself is concerned, he is inclined to abandon the capital and ignore it, and immediately send troops to the east and rush to the Yazihe River to escort him. It's just that he couldn't grasp the movements of the Zhou army for a while, so he didn't dare to act rashly, so as not to be ambushed by the Zhou army. Second, some Khitan civil and military officials who stayed in Linhuang Mansion did not agree to leave the defense without receiving the holy decree, and surrendered the capital to the Zhou army. Therefore, although after many discussions, they still did not come up with a feasible and feasible method that everyone was satisfied with, so that nearly 60,000 horses and horses mobilized by Han Kuangsi from various places, including villagers, subordinate national troops, and tribal troops, were stationed outside Linhuang City for nearly ten days, but they still had nothing to do, and could only wait anxiously.

Just when the new round of deliberations was still making no progress because of the dispute over whether to abandon the city or defend the city, Han Kuangsi planned to suspend the discussion and argue with the defenders after lunch, but the Chinese officers who stayed in the mansion hurriedly ran into the lobby and reported: "The lord left behind, Xiao Daxiang, the guard general of Yongzhou, pleaded for guilt outside the gate of the mansion and asked to see the lord. ”

Hearing that Xiao Daxiang, the general of Yongzhou, asked to see him, Han Kuangsi hurriedly ordered the Chinese military officer to bring him into the lobby -- as for the other party's "guilt of pleading," in Han Kuangsi's view, it was an inevitable choice after losing Yongzhou, and he didn't need to pay attention to it.

A moment later, the Chinese officer led Xiao Daxiang, who was shirtless and carrying thorns on his back, and tied himself up. As soon as he entered the lobby of the left-behind mansion, Xiao Daxiang fell to his knees and shouted: "The last general Xiao Daxiang is not effective in guarding the palace, losing troops and losing the city, and he has lost the trust of the emperor and the trust of the adults. After saying that, he touched his head to the ground and did not lift it again.

First, the loss of Yongzhou is expected. Second, the scars on Xiao Daxiang's upper body and the bloodstains on his pants show what kind of hard fighting he experienced before escaping back to Beijing. In addition, after the Chinese officer brought Xiao Daxiang into the lobby, he also whispered in the ear of his own commander that the seven or eight soldiers who came with Xiao Daxiang were also all injured and injured, and two of them were still very serious, but they were afraid that it would be difficult to survive. Therefore, Han Kuangsi not only did not blame Xiao Daxiang for losing Yongzhou, but personally loosened his clothes, "moved" Xiao Daxiang is crying bitterly, and asked his boss to give him another soldier and horse, and he wanted to fight with the Zhou army, and he would never come back to see him if he did not recapture Yongzhou.

Although Xiao Daxiang's mood for war is understandable, Han Kuangsi also knows very well that in the face of the powerful Zhou army, giving Xiao Daxiang a team of men and horses will never be able to win, but will lose his own troops in vain - even if he is going with a decisive heart this time. Therefore, on the one hand, Han Kuangsi used Xiao Daxiang's decisive expression to boost the morale of the civil and military officials present, but on the other hand, he said good words to Xiao Daxiang, asking him not to worry, to recover from his injuries first, and then go to Zhou Jun for revenge when the time is ripe.

Seeing that Xiao Daxiang's feelings were gradually stabilized, Han Kuangsi began to inquire about the process of the battle of Yongzhou and the current movements of the Zhou army - although Xiao Daxiang's expression of pleading for guilt and asking for war was very true, it was not easy to get out of the encirclement of the Zhou army and run back to Linhuang City. Therefore, as a proper process, Han Kuangsi still has to understand the battle process, so as to confirm that Xiao Daxiang really fought a big battle with the Zhou army, instead of being cowardly and afraid of the battle, fleeing from the battle, and then cutting a few knives on his body and putting a thorn on his back to exonerate himself.

For Han Kuangsi's inquiry, Xiao Daxiang was prepared, and hurriedly took out the rhetoric that he had discussed with Xiao Jixian, Wang Feng and others before leaving Yongzhou, and began to tell how he would rather die than surrender after being besieged, how he fought to the end in blood, how he took the lead and fought with the Zhou army shirtless, how he was stunned by the Zhou army's artillery fire and lost consciousness and was desperately carried back to the city by his own soldiers, how he tried his best to hide for two days in an abandoned house that was blown up by artillery fire and uninhabited to avoid the search of the Zhou army, and how he took advantage of the main force of the Zhou army to march eastward, Changning City was not as well prepared as before, and rushed out of the city under the protection of his own soldiers, and only after losing several of his own soldiers did he get away from the pursuit of the Zhou army's scouts and cavalry, and ran back to Shangjing in one go.

Xiao Daxiang's narration can be described as "full of emotion" and "vivid", which not only made all the Khitan civil and military officials present, including Han Kuangsi, listen as if they were there, but also make them believe that the narrator did indeed rush out of Yongzhou and return to Beijing after a bloody battle, and while lamenting the difficulty and luck of Xiao Daxiang to escape from that situation, he also praised and admired his series of expressions of bravely killing the enemy and not fearing life and death.

However, compared with Xiao Daxiang's appearance in the Battle of Yongzhou, Han Kuangsi paid more attention to the news he brought about the current movements of the Zhou army - after capturing Yongzhou, the Zhou army only took a short rest and then marched eastward with the main force, from the Tuhe River (Laoha River) to the Huang River (Xiliao River) and then all the way down the river, killing in the direction of Wuzhou. Judging from this, nine times out of ten, the point of his soldiers is Changchun Prefecture, where His Majesty the Emperor is making spring bowls.

If the Khitan civil and military officials in Linhuang City, Shangjing, were still arguing endlessly about whether to defend the city or abandon the city and march eastward, then after Xiao Daxiang brought the news that the main force of the Zhou army went all the way east to Wuzhou, the above controversy immediately stopped, and everyone's opinions became one - only a small number of soldiers and horses were used to defend the city of Linhuang in Shangjing, and the main force was assembled to march east to Changchun Prefecture to escort it.

Although as far as Han Kuangsi's intentions are concerned, he does not want Xiao Daxiang, who fled back to the capital after a bloody battle, to continue to fight with the army, but hopes that he will recuperate in the city and assist the generals who stayed behind to defend the city together. However, he couldn't bear Xiao Daxiang's repeated requests, and even wrote a bloody letter for war, so he had to reluctantly agree to Xiao Daxiang's eastward march with the army after confirming from the medical officer that although the former was seriously injured, he was not in danger of his life, and appointed him as the vanguard of the front army at his request, leading 5,000 elites to open the way and explore the way for the army.

On the 26th day of March of the lunar calendar in the nineteenth year of the calendar (the seventh year of Jianlong), after leaving 10,000 soldiers and horses to guard Linhuang City, Han Kuang led an army of 50,000 to the east to rescue King Qin of Changchun Prefecture.