Compared with the Right Route Army that landed across the sea, the Left Route Army and the Middle Route Army were much longer and more numerous in terms of distance and the states and counties that needed to be captured along the way. Therefore, after the will of the Northern Expedition to the Khitan was issued on the first day of March in the seventh year of Jianlong, the Left Route Army and the Middle Route Army took the lead in taking action, pulling out the camp and raising the village, and the 100,000 army left Daning Mansion in a mighty way, passed through Enhua and Lengshui Fort, went down the river, and killed Gaozhou.

100,000 Zhou troops, including nearly 40,000 "Flying Dragon Army", such a powerful army with attack power and combat effectiveness that can be called the first in the world, is by no means something that the 5,000 defenders in the Khitan Zhongjing Province Gaozhou Sanhan City, including the temporarily organized Qingzhuang, can contend with. In fact, in the face of the disparity in strength of 20 to 1, and the 40,000 "Flying Dragon Army" almost armed to the teeth, in the "Overlord Operation" a few years ago, he had seen the strength of the Beiping Army at that time, and escaped by luck, and now was arranged to guard here After a symbolic slight resistance of less than a meal, he very wisely erected the flag and gave up the battle. As a result, the joint cluster of the left and middle roads of the Northern Expedition of the Later Zhou Dynasty began to prepare for the battle from the third day of the third lunar month of the seventh year of Jianlong to the end of the Chenshi Shun lì to take over the Sanhan City of Gaozhou, and it took less than half an hour before and after the Northern Expedition to get off to a good start.

Although the first battle was won easily and freely, and Sanhan Castle was taken almost bloodlessly, Yang Xin, Zeng Zhilin and others, who were the commanders of the army, did not despise the enemy and looked down on the enemy. After conquering Sanhan City, Yang, Zeng and others, while pacifying the people, restoring order, and reorganizing and surrendering troops, sent Wang Feng and Muter to lead some soldiers and horses to trace the Tuhe River (Laoha River) tributary Luoma River upstream, and went straight to Songshan Prefecture 80 miles away to govern Songshan City (Chifeng), in order to pull out this nail inserted in the west of Gaozhou, ensure the safety of their left rear flank, and ensure the unimpeded flow of the grain route.

Compared with his colleagues in Gaozhou Sanhan City, the defenders of Songshan City, Khitan Songshan Prefecture, who had only heard of the Zhou army and the former Beiping Army and had never seen the actual situation, were not so practical. This guy has never suffered a loss in the hands of the Zhou army or the Beiping army, and as a member of the royal family surnamed Yelu, he cannot abandon the city or surrender lightly, plus he believes that Songshan City is surrounded by mountains on three sides and faces water on one side, so after learning from the mouth of the horse that the Zhou army has captured Sanhan City and sent a partial division to his side, he was both confident and arrogant, and bluntly said that he wanted to give the Zhou army a dismount and win the first victory of the Liao-Zhou War for Da Liao.

It's a pity that "the desire is very plump and the reality is very skinny", and the self-confidence and arrogance of the Khitan Songshan defender did not bring him good luck. This Yelu general, who did not understand the characteristics of the Zhou army and the strong strength of the "Flying Dragon Army", and took the lead in standing at the city pass to personally command the defense in order to boost morale, only lasted no more than half a pillar of incense at the head of Songshan City, and was blown to pieces by the artillery fire of the Zhou army's siege of the city, and there was not even any slag left. And with the destruction of this main general who was bent on coexisting with the city, the Khitan defenders, who were originally not highly moraled, suddenly scattered, and fled cleanly in a moment. On the fifth day of the third month of the lunar calendar in the seventh year of Jianlong, the Northern Expedition of the Later Zhou Dynasty conquered Songshan City.

Two days later, Wang Feng and Muter's troops returned to Sanhan, joined the main forces of the Northern Expeditionary Army's left and middle routes, continued down the Tuhe River (Laoha River), and arrived at the city of Changning, Yongzhou on the 18th day of the lunar calendar in the seventh year of Jianlong.

Compared with Gaozhou and Songshan Prefecture, which were previously part of the frontier areas of the two countries, Yongzhou, which is located in Shangjing Province and nearly 500 miles away from the Liaozhou border, is much inferior in terms of the size of the city and the strength of its guards. The walls of Samhan and Songshan Castle are still one zhang five feet high (4.5 meters), and the surface of the walls has been reinforced with stones, while Yongju Changning Castle is not only a pure rammed earth city wall, but also only about one zhang (3 meters) high. If in the eyes of Zhou Jun, the two cities of Sanhan and Songshan can barely be regarded as cities, then Changning City is also a slightly taller and wider dock fort. What's more, there were only 3,000 defenders in Yongzhou Changning City that could be organized, which was only a little more than half of the first two cities. In the eyes of most of the generals of the Zhou army, attacking such a city did not even need the usual artillery preparations, just put a few siege guns and fire one or twenty cannons, and they could collapse the rammed earth city wall that was neither high nor thick, and then everyone rushed in. Of course, this is not that the generals of the Zhou army underestimate the enemy, but that the strength of the two sides is there, and it is difficult for the Zhou army to win.

However, to the surprise of the soldiers of the Zhou army, after the advance of the army arrived at the city of Changning in Yongzhou on the morning of the eighteenth day of the third lunar month of the seventh year of Jianlong, the two generals Wang Feng, the deputy commander of the army, and Wu Peng, the Marquis of Duyu, did not take advantage of the situation to attack the city and take this Tuweizi in their eyes, which was not worth mentioning in their eyes, but ordered the vanguard of nearly 20,000 troops to camp outside the city and surround Changning City, which had the meaning of fighting a siege battle in a serious manner. Although the soldiers felt that this was not necessary, the military orders were like a mountain, and although everyone was puzzled, they were not slow to act, and according to the division of labor in advance, they either monitored the city, or inspected the surroundings, or carried baggage, or set up tents, and set up a large camp in only one hour, and began to bury pots and cook food, and prepare lunch.

At the same time, a banquet had also been set up in the big tent of the Chinese army, and Wang Feng, one of the leading generals of the vanguard army, invited his deputy Wu Peng to sit down behind his own table, and ordered: "Come here, go and invite General Xiao to the Chinese military tent for lunch." ”

The guards in the tent agreed to leave the tent, and after a short time, they led a tall, handsome man dressed as a Khitan to return to the tent.

After the man entered the tent, he immediately saluted Wang Feng and Wu Peng with a humble face, and said carefully: "Ji Xian has seen General Wang and General Wu. I wonder what the two generals ordered to call for succession? ”

It turned out that the so-called General Xiao who was sent by Wang Feng was Xiao Jixian, a famous Khitan general who was captured by the crossing team during the Battle of Youyun and the nephew of Xiao Siwen who stayed behind in Khitan Nanjing. Roughly calculated, he has been imprisoned in the Xishan prisoner of war camp in Peiping Province for nearly 11 years.

Although eleven years is not a long time, it can be said that it is not a short time, and it is enough to turn the high-spirited, heroic, and world-watching, only fourteen or fifteen-year-old young talent into the current subtle, introverted, cautious, and submissive young man, although he is not yet 30 years old, but he has no sharp spirit.

Speaking of which, Xiao Jixian became what he is now, but he is no wonder. First, because he once led his subordinates to attack Wang Kunjun in Shangzhuang Village, not only did one of the other party's guards be injured and had to be amputated and became disabled, but also put the entire crossing team and its armed leader Wang Kunjun in unprecedented danger. Therefore, although the sneak attack ended in failure, whether it was the personal guards or the crossing team armed forces, that is, the later soldiers of the Beiping Army, they took revenge on Xiao Jixian. Therefore, in the early period of Xiao Jixian's capture, he did not suffer much from the bullying of the soldiers in charge of the guards. Starvation and freezing have become commonplace, and from time to time they will be punched, kicked, and repaired by the other party for various reasons or even for no reason. Such a tragic encounter has long made Xiao Jixian understand the truth of what it means to be "a good man does not suffer immediate losses", and has developed a character of swallowing his anger and accepting it against the grain - in fact, when he first entered the prisoner of war camp, Xiao Jixian also thought about hanging himself with a rope to avoid being bullied and losing his dignity. But the problem is that after his uncle Xiao Siwen was captured, he couldn't afford to be sick and needed his care. If he dies like this, I am afraid that it will not be a few days before my uncle will follow in his footsteps. Thinking of his uncle's kindness, cultivation and support to him in the past, Xiao Jixian couldn't make up his mind to leave it alone.

Second, although the crossing team gave certain preferential treatment to the captured Khitan nobles and detained them in solitary confinement, their living and living conditions were much better than those of those middle- and low-level civil and military officials and ordinary soldiers, and high-ranking prisoners like Xiao Jixian and Xiao Siwen could even ride horses around the prisoner of war camp to exercise and maintain their own habits and health. But on the one hand, his scope of activities is limited after all, and after eleven years of imprisonment, every day he sees the same size of sky, the same mountains, the same woods, the same high walls and iron nets, the same black holes and shining bayonets, Xiao Jixian is imprisoned not only in his body, but also in his ideals, beliefs and even soul. On the other hand, as they spent more and more time in the prisoner of war camp, driven by the deliberate actions of the crossing team and the innate selfishness of the people, the original consciousness of the rank and status of these Khitan nobles became more and more blurred and diluted. As a result, the order of eating, drinking, and enjoying various daily necessities in the prisoner of war camp quickly changed from being determined by the previous status to being determined by strength, so that Xiao Jixian had to fight for the survival of himself and his uncle almost every day. The harsh reality and the heavy pressure of survival not only sharpened the edges and corners of Xiao Jixian's body clean and smooth, but also cultivated his philosophy of being sleek, flattering, and flattering. Especially for the "Qingyuan" brothers who can decide the life and death of him and his uncle in one word, Xiao Jixian is extremely respectful, and he does not dare to contradict or disobey at all.

Therefore, before the start of the Northern Expedition, Song Feiyang, the political envoy of Hebei, sent someone to take him from the prisoner of war camp to the Yamen of the Hebei Provincial Political Department in Beiping City, and personally conveyed to him that Wang Kunjun, the king of Song, wanted him to go north with the Northern Expedition army, and persuade the Khitan guards along the way to surrender at the right time, so as to speed up the Northern Expedition and reduce war lossesIt is betraying one's conscience and betraying one's country.

As for Xiao Jixian's situation, Wang Feng and Wu Peng also knew everything about Xiao Jixian's situation from Song Feiyang and Liang Ziyue, the head of the Internal Affairs Department of the Intelligence Department, who was responsible for the management of the prisoner of war camp, and also knew the purpose of the fifth brother Wang Kunjun to let him act with the Northern Expeditionary Army. It's just that because the previous guards of Gaozhou were Han people, there was no need for Xiao Jixian to persuade them to surrender, and the guards of Songshan Prefecture were the generals of the Yelu clan of the imperial family, and it was not suitable for Xiao Jixian from the later clan to come forward to persuade him, so he was never used. Now the guard in Changning City, Yongzhou, in front of him is Xiao Daxiang from the Hou clan, and his father is Xiao Buda, a cronie of the clan who was captured alive by the crossing team with Xiao Siwen during the Battle of Youyun, and this Xiao Jixian also has a place to use.

So, when Xiao Ji gave in first, he finally turned to the back of his wine table, and sat sideways on the chair for half of his buttocks, Wang Feng smiled slightly: "General Xiao, as the saying goes, 'raise soldiers for a thousand days and use them for a while', today is the day when you will make meritorious contributions and get rid of the sea of suffering." ”