At the same time, a large number of reinforcements mobilized by the Liao State from all over the country, the main forces of the palace army, the Xi army, and the northern and southern courtyard armies have successively gathered near Youzhou, and Han Derang Gong guarded Xiao Xuan's imperial tent also arrived at Xiazhai fifty miles away from Zhuozhou. The Liao army, which had completed the assembly, quickly launched a counterattack against the Song army, and gathered heavy forces to capture Gu'an, southeast of Zhuozhou.

The main soldiers of the Song army's eastern route army fought hard and exhausted, and what was even more embarrassing was that they were in danger of being cut off from east to west by the Liao cavalry. After finding out that it was the reinforcements from Shangjing who captured Gu'an, and even the Empress Dowager Xiao personally conscripted and supervised the war, in the face of the pressure of the Liao army, Cao Bin had no choice but to retreat again in the rain that night.

The rapidity and intensity of the Liao army's pursuit this time were far better than the previous one. At Qigou Pass, the main force of the Song army on the east road was caught up by the Liao army, and Cao Bin supervised the whole army and the Liao army in a decisive battle. At this time, it has been nearly two months since the Song army went out to attack Liao, waiting for the West Road and the Middle Route Army to come to meet in Zhuozhou, which is too extravagant to give the Liao people time to gather the elite of the whole country to face the battle. Under the onslaught of the Liao soldiers, the Song army failed in the battle, and Cao Bin once again ordered a retreat overnight.

In the pouring rain, the Song army that withdrew from Qigou Pass was caught up by the Liao cavalry when they forcibly crossed the Juma River, and at this time, some of the forbidden troops who had time to cross the river relied on grain carts to desperately resist the Liao elite cavalry who surrounded and killed on all sides, and the soldiers of the forbidden army fought hard with the Liao soldiers like a tide, and they would rather die than surrender. At dawn the next day, the corpses of the Song army killed in battle were floating everywhere on the Juma River, and the blood stained the entire river red, until the fierce general Cai Jixuan led 5,000 iron cavalry to return and kill back, and then repelled the Liao soldiers, so that the remnants of the Song army left behind could cross the Juma River.

The Song army went down to the south of Yishui and confronted the Liao army that had caught up. The official family issued an order again, ordering the generals to divide their troops and retire to the border city passes. Under the pressure of the Liao army, the Song army retreated again, Cao Bin led the main force to retreat to Dingzhou, Mi Xin and Cui Yan entered the department to cover the main retreat, and later retreated to Gaoyang Pass, the Song army divided the troops, and the Liao army immediately chose the weaker Mi Xin to pursue and kill more than 10,000. In this battle, the forbidden army on the Hebei front was completely damaged, and the dead before and after were as high as tens of thousands, and the losses were far higher than those of the first Northern Expedition.

In Qigou Pass, the Liao army found that tens of thousands of Song soldiers and civilians were hiding in Qigou Pass, which was originally an empty city, because they had no time to escape. The Liao soldiers besieged the city, and they were anxious to subdue Qigou Pass, until it happened to be the birthday of the Empress Dowager Xiao Xuan, on this day Xiao Xuan issued an order, so that the front-line Liao army generals and the tens of thousands of Song people made peace, as long as the people withdrew from Qigou Pass, promised that they could return to the Song State in peace. With their own courage, these tens of thousands of Song folk husbands miraculously did not become slaves, but returned to their hometowns. After the war, they each returned to their hometowns, and their names were obscure, but after hearing the news, Wu Yingying immediately sent the Military Intelligence Department and the Chengying Battalion to recruit sergeants among these people, and they got more than 2,000 strong people, and arranged for them to move their families to Hexi to live.

The news of the loss of troops on the front line almost completely submerged the Privy Council, and the officials and officials of the Privy Council were busy like ants on a hot pot, putting the battle situation in the palace, arranging for the border states and counties to contain the defeated troops, and carrying out the latest instructions of the officials asking the generals to "divide" the border passes to resist the Liao army, and at the same time, they also had to deal with the overwhelming bullets from the civilian system. The news of the defeat caused the long-standing dissatisfaction of Zhongshu Province, which had been excluded from the Northern Expedition decision, to erupt at once.

The former prime minister Zhao Pu and the current prime minister Cai Fang both asked for the elimination of the bait war, but the official Zhao Jiong knew that he had chosen how to start the war, but in the face of the defeat, how to end the war depends on the choice of the Liao.

The formation of the front-line rout was almost chaotic, and the prestige of generals Cao Bin, Tian Chongjin, and Cai Jilong in the army was discredited, and it was difficult to ensure that they could make an effective and resolute resistance when the Khitans re-entered the army. So, Zhao Jiong weighed the pros and cons, and finally decided to use the veteran who had already been idle. In the month after the Battle of Qigou Pass, Cao Bin entered Beijing to be convicted, and Zhang Yongde, the general of the left guard, went out of Cangzhou, and Liu Yan, the general of the right Xiaowei, gave up Zhenxiongzhou, and ordered him to "attack the Khitan to serve himself".

"Your Highness, here's your chance. The first time he learned the news, Wang Yu quietly messed around in the Privy Council all day, and when he returned to the mansion, he hurriedly sneaked to Zhao Dezhao's mansion to tell him the news.

Zhao Dezhao, who had been interacting with Taoist monks for many years, was stunned for a moment, and only after a while did he realize what Wang Yu meant, he stood up quite excitedly, and said in a deep voice: "Rectify the chaos, all the power of Mr." Under the excitement, even the clogs under his feet were broken by two.

After the defeat of Qigou Pass, the offensive of the Liao army has not stopped, in June, the famous general Yelu Xian Qi army ran long-distance, in one fell swoop to seize Huanzhou, which is closer to the main road of Yanmen Pass, resulting in the passage between the newly recovered Yun, Ying, Shuo and Yanmen Pass under the threat of the Liao army, in July, Zhao Jiong finally made up his mind to give up the four states of Yunying Shuohuan that had just been captured, and ordered Pan Mei and Yang Ye to go out of Yanmen Pass and escort the newly attached soldiers and civilians of the four states to return to the pass. However, the worst news finally came.

"Yang Ye was defeated and captured, and surrendered to the Liao. Coach Pan Mei, supervisor Liu Wenyu, Hou Mowu used the three of them to jointly petition for guilt to confirm the news, Zhao Jiong immediately ordered all Yang Ye's family members to be imprisoned for crime, even Yang Yanzhao, who was wounded by an arrow in the Battle of the Northern Expedition, was no exception.

Prime Minister Cai Fang was worried about other things, and the recently edited history book was submitted to the official's house, but it has been returned twice because it involves the defeat of Qigou Pass. Repairing history is a major event of the country, if you can't write straight, the world's corporal mouth is difficult to fill, Cai Fangzheng doesn't know what to do, Hanlin bachelor Wang Yu came to visit, and when he sat and entertained guests, Cai Fang did not smile at all, but has been frowning.

"Why should the Prime Minister be troubled, there is a way that the bell must be tied to the bell," Wang Yu took a sip of dragon and phoenix tea soup and said with a smile, "Although the official family did not say it explicitly, but the handling of the generals of the Northern Expedition, and all kinds of instructions on the minister's performance, are not all the keys to solving the problem?"

"What does the secret power mean?" Cai Fang suddenly realized, Zhao Jiong's treatment of the generals of the Northern Expedition was quite strange recently, and he arrived in Zhuozhou first, and the generals of the East Route Army who had been waiting for a long time were severely punished. Although it is natural to be responsible for the defeat of the army, but when you really think about the merits and demerits, you detour to the states behind the mountains, the march is on time, and you can't rush to Zhuozhou in time to attack Youzhou with Cao Bin, Pan Mei and Tian Chongjin seem to have greater responsibility, but they are easily let go by the officials. In addition, the official explained to Zhao Pu and others that there was no problem with the strategy of the Northern Expedition, and the problem was that the generals of the Eastern Route did not follow the calculations and marched too fast, so that it was difficult for the Third Route Army to respond.

"The strategy of the three-way march was formulated by the officials themselves," Wang Yu said slowly with a smile, "If it is the generals such as Pan Mei and Tian Chongjin who are guilty of detouring through the states behind the mountains, after a hundred years and thousands of years, someone with a heart will survey the terrain behind the mountain, arrange the Liao soldiers, fabricate the basis, talk nonsense, and even argue that even if Cao Bin waits in Zhuozhou for a few more months, he will not be able to wait for the other two roads to come to join the army, and the people will take a long time, where is the name of the Son of Heaven?"

In the officialdom, it is most taboo to speak thoroughly, as straightforward as Wang Yu, either he is insane and talks to Prime Minister Cai Fang, or he was entrusted by the saint to hint at it, Cai Fang speculated in his heart that the revision of the national history failed to cater to the wishes of the government several times, presumably annoying the official family, which made Wang Yu come to wake up.

Cai Fang suddenly realized and sighed: "If this is the case, the old man is stupid." "Thank you to Wang Yu, the two of them said a lot of irrelevant things, and Wang Yu said goodbye.

A few days later, the history book of the official family was written, and the main generals of the east road competed for merit, jealous of the west and middle roads to conquer the city, regardless of the success of the official family, marched without authorization, and ran out of grain and grass, and hastily retreated, resulting in failure, Zhao Jiong then ordered the historian to officially write this record into the national history.

Yang Ye went on a hunger strike in the Liao army camp for several days, and his body was extremely weak and died of hatred.

"I am used to fighting on the battlefield, but now that I see Yang Ye dying on a hunger strike, I know that what the southerners said about sacrificing their lives for righteousness is not a lie. Yelu sighed rather regretfully, "I heard that the Song State has a legend that he has surrendered and has sent his family to prison, I originally wanted to release the news, and wait for the Song Emperor to behead his wife and children, and then persuade him to surrender." He knew the story of Su Wu and Cai Ling.

Han Derang's eyes were complicated, some people were loyal, even if the whole family was killed by mistake, he was unwilling to succumb to the thief, he hadn't felt ashamed for a long time. Yelu Hugo said in a deep voice: "Since he is a hero, there should be a way to die as a hero, cut off his head, and go to the border in front of the Song people's passes and fortresses to boast about his merits." Don't let him die with a rebellious reputation. Han Derang nodded.

The Liao people put Yang Ye's head in a wooden cage and passed it on to show off in Yanmen Pass, Xiongzhou and other places, and Yang was invincible in the battle, which greatly demoralized the Song army in the Hedong area. In addition, Yang Ye suffered an injustice, and his wife Zhe continued to write to defend his grievances, and the Zhe family also secretly helped each other, and even handed the grievances to the third prince Zhao Dechang.

"Father, the Liao people have passed Yang Ye to the border, he was captured and died of hunger strike, and he is a loyal minister comparable to Liu Renzhen of the Southern Tang Dynasty. "Zhao Dechang is not as bold as his brother Zhao Yuanzuo, and he always looks trembling when he talks to his father, but he is kind-hearted, Zhao Jiong values this, so he intends to pass on the throne to him after a hundred years, so that he can be a prince who keeps his success.

Zhao Jiong looked coldly at this honest son arguing, the Khitan people passed Yang Ye to the head, if the charge of surrendering the enemy was forcibly imposed on him, Hedong surrendered, and the Yang family and the Zhe family could not be appeased, and now the generals in the court and the central government are unusable, since Yang Ye, who is possessed by the black dragon, has been removed, and his son Yang Yanzhao is also a general who can fight, so leave it to his son.