The Zhou army collected his troops and returned to the camp to prepare for dinner steadily, but Yelu Heli, Han Deshu and other Khitan officials and guards in the city were anxiously thinking of countermeasures like ants on a hot pot. Although it was unlikely that the bridge would be rebuilt under the interference of the Zhou army, Yelu Heli, who could not think of a better way for a while, had no choice but to order craftsmen to go out of the city to repair the bridge, and at the same time consider organizing servants to bury trenches with soil on their backs when necessary, so as to pave a way out of the city for the defenders in the city - even this passage would become a shortcut for the Zhou army to enter the city.

It's just that building bridges is easier said than done. Although the three-zhang wide moat is much narrower than those in the wild, the space between the city wall and the moat is narrow, and it is very inconvenient for craftsmen to operate. Second, the time left for these craftsmen to repair the bridge is very limited, and even if they are all reincarnated by Luban, it is very difficult to complete the bridge within the time limit required by Yelu Heli. What's more, the Zhou army outside the city is not a fool, and it is impossible to sit back and watch the craftsmen in the city build the bridge and ignore it. In fact, from the very beginning of the bridge repair project, Zhou Jun's interference and obstruction never stopped. Cold guns, cold cannons, and cold arrows cast by the cavalry of the "Security Army" as if training in the art of mounted archery, would visit the bridge repair sites from time to time. Although this kind of harassment did not cause any serious casualties to the craftsmen or the soldiers supervising at the scene, except for a few unlucky guys who died on the spot, and the other people who unfortunately became the targets of the Zhou army were at most hung with a color on their arms and legs, but the pressure brought to the soldiers and craftsmen at the scene by this terrifying atmosphere that could die or leave blood at any time was by no means something ordinary people could bear. Therefore, the so-called bridge repair project was carried out for only a few hours, and because the craftsmen could not bear the pressure, they would rather have their heads cut off than go out of the city, and had to be hastily ended at noon on the third day of the sixth month of the lunar calendar, with the helpless order of Yelu and Li.

The bridge could not be repaired, and if you wanted to get out of the city, you had to fill in the moat. But things are easier said than done, when it really comes time to do it, whether it is Yelu Heli, Han Deshu, or other officials and guards in the city, no one can easily make up this decision. After all, after the bridge is repaired, it can be dismantled, burned, and destroyed at any time, so as not to give the Zhou army a chance. But when the moat is filled, it will not be able to return to its original state in a short time. And with these passages out of the city, once the breakthrough out of the city fails, the Zhou army only needs to push the butts of their own defeated soldiers, and they can enter the city without much effort. What's more, in the case of a large-scale counterattack, even if a small number of soldiers will be surrounded by the Zhou army, they will become the target of the latter's scouts and scouts, and the possibility of successfully delivering the news to the Son of Heaven is really worrying.

Time passed little by little in the hesitation of Yelu Heli, until the evening of the third day of the sixth month of the lunar calendar, a confidant strategist said, "The Zhou army outside the city has limited strength, and it is impossible to achieve everything with six or seven thousand people." Although it is difficult for our army to succeed in breaking through the siege on a large scale, if we send a small group of men and horses to sneak out of the city secretly, we may not be able to evade the surveillance of the Zhou army, pass through the gaps in its defenses, and go north to deliver a message to the Son of Heaven".

In fact, with the wisdom of Yelu Heli, he may not really be a "fan of the authorities" as he himself said, and he really can't think of using the above methods to send a letter to the Son of Heaven. It can only be said that after the Zhou army surrounded Liaoyang City, especially after the other side sent nearly half of the troops to intercept the Yelulong Pioneer in the north, and only besieged the city with six or seven thousand men and horses, Yelu Heli subconsciously thought more about how to break the siege, how to repel the Zhou army, and how to turn Liaoyang City into a place for the Son of Heaven to avoid danger and revitalize the foundation of the Great Liao Majesty, but did not focus on how to send a letter to the Son of Heaven. Now, the Zhou army has blockaded Liaoyang City by unconventional means, leaving tens of thousands of defenders in the city, but they can't use their strengths, and they have to use their own shortcomings to compete with the strengths of the Zhou army.

With a new direction, Yelu Heli did not dare to delay in the slightest, and immediately summoned his subordinate officials, and according to the advice of the confidant, he worked out a new plan for breaking out.

At midnight that night, according to the prior plan, more than 200 carefully selected Khitan dead soldiers were divided into four groups, trying their best to avoid the light of the flares that would rise in the air from time to time in the Zhou army, and came out of the city from the four directions of Liaoyang City, southeast and northwest at the same time, crossed the moat under the cover of darkness, and walked towards the direction of the Zhou army's camp.

Although the Zhou army arranged a lot of rangers to patrol along the periphery of Liaoyang City, and arranged a special artillery team to fire flares in the direction of Liaoyang City from time to time, so that the defenders could break through at night. But in the face of Liaoyang City, which is 30 miles in circumference, it is difficult for Zou Zhenyuan, who has only 6 or 7,000 men and horses in his hands, to be comprehensive, and it is inevitable that there will be some flaws and mistakes in the encirclement and blockade line. Therefore, except for the one in the west that was intercepted because it was discovered by the patrol cavalry of the Zhou army, the Khitan elite soldiers who sneaked out of the city from four directions successfully broke through the blockade line of the Zhou army and appeared outside the Zhou army camp.

Of course, a successful crossing of the blockade does not mean that the breakout operation has been successful. On the one hand, after the group of Khitan dead soldiers in the west was discovered, the entire Zhou army camp was alarmed, and nearly 1,000 emergency cavalry battalions composed of the "Flying Dragon Army" and the "Security Army" that had been waiting for the day and were ready to respond to emergencies at any time immediately assembled, ready to search for and round up the Khitan army that might have successfully infiltrated the Khitan army. On the other hand, due to the need to swim across the moat, the two hundred Khitan dead soldiers traveled on foot. Even if you can evade the initial search of the Zhou cavalry by taking advantage of the darkness of the night, it will not be easy to run out of the search range of the Zhou army before dawn. So, just as the two emergency cavalry battalions of the Zhou army were preparing to set off, the eight city gates in the four directions of Liaoyang City, southeast and northwest were opened one after another, and thousands of young and strong people poured out under the drive of thousands of Bohai and Jurchen warriors, divided into dozens of shares, and threw the sacks full of mud and sand on their backs into the moat, and there was a great posture of filling the moat at any cost.

In this way, the shortcomings of the Zhou army's insufficient siege troops became apparent. If the troops in his hands are sufficient, Zou Zhenyuan can send the two emergency cavalry battalions out to hunt for the Khitan dead, and at the same time mobilize troops and horses to block the city gates and prevent the defenders in the city from filling in the trenches. But Zou Zhenyuan, who had only 6 or 7,000 troops in his hands, but had to defend a defensive line with a circumference of more than 30 miles and stop the people in the city from filling in the trenches in dozens of groups, now had to choose between a dilemma - whether to concentrate his forces to stop the defenders from filling in the trenches, or to disperse his forces to search for the Khitan dead soldiers who had probably successfully sneaked through the blockade line and whose whereabouts and numbers were unknown.

As the so-called "lesser of two evils", sparing the Khitan dead soldiers will at most make Ye Luxian and others not come to Liaoyang City and flee elsewhere - this is still in the case of Yang Kefu's failure. However, if the defenders in the city succeed in filling the trenches, not only will their previous blockade strategy be completely defeated, but it will also be far more difficult to stop the swarming defenders in the city than to hunt down the Khitan dead soldiers whose number is uncertain but will never exceed 300. Therefore, in just a blink of an eye, Zou Zhenyuan had already made a decision: ignore the Khitan dead soldiers who may have successfully infiltrated the blockade line, and concentrate on dealing with the defenders in the city who are filling in the trenches.

Although in terms of possibility, the trench filling operation should be more a feint to cover the dead soldiers, no one can guarantee that this is not a ploy made by the defenders to combine reality and fiction. Once the Zhou army focused on the hunt for the dead, the feint was likely to turn into an actual attack immediately. Therefore, Zou Zhenyuan, who knows his current first priority, does not dare and will not take this risk. As a result, one after another orders came out of the big tent of the Chinese army, and a group of soldiers also moved on hearing the order, quickly entered the designated area, and with the assistance of almost continuous flares, they used fierce fire to deter the young and strong people who were working hard to fill in the trenches under the persecution of the Bohai Sea and Jurchen soldiers.

In line with the principle of reducing the casualties of the Han people as much as possible, the Zhou army's firepower attack was mainly "frightened" and supplemented by "killing" for those Han people who left the city, and striving to scare these innocent people back. And for those Bohai and Jurchen soldiers who were responsible for driving them away, they were ruthless, and they found one and eliminated the other. So much so that later, these Bohai and Jurchen soldiers did not dare to take half a step out of the city gate. Without the fierce Bohai Sea and the Jurchen soldiers urging by the side, the young and strong people of the Han people, who were already driven out of the city to fill the moat and complained about being cannon fodder, naturally did not contribute as much as possible. Many people went out of the city gate and threw the sacks on their backs into the moat, then turned around and ran into the city, not caring if it was where they should have thrown it. In this way, the efficiency of this back moat can be imagined.

Fortunately, as Zou Zhenyuan expected, it was indeed a combination of fiction and reality, and seeing that the Zhou army ignored the dead soldiers who sneaked out of the blockade line, they did their best to prevent the young and strong people in the city from carrying soil and filling in the trenches. Under the interference of the Zhou army's firepower, the young and strong people of the Han people obviously did not contribute to the work, and they were afraid that they would not be able to fill in a passage that could cross the moat until dawn, and it was obviously impossible to "turn fiction into reality". In addition, according to the calculation of time, the dead soldiers in the east, north and south should have successfully broken through. Therefore, Yelu Heli, who was hiding at the head of Huaiyuan Gate in the northern city and secretly observing, finally ordered to stop driving the people to fill in the moat and withdraw everyone to the city after about half an hour of this ineffectual back-to-back moat.