Perhaps in order to win people's hearts, or to make up for Ashan's crossbow department, Ou Yunxi ordered that all the 3,000 armor soldiers brought from Yunxi Island be handed over to Ashan's crossbow command. Although these islanders are not as brave and good at fighting as the veterans of the Eastern Expedition, they all have good military force, so the number of the Eastern Expeditionary Army is still maintained at about 40,000, and the loss of combat power is almost negligible.

Now the army is assembled, still with Ashan's crossbow of the Eastern Army as the main force of the siege, Pingnan general Zhang Yuankang, patrol the north general Ma Juquan each led 10,000 elite soldiers to assist, Zhenxi general Gong Changping stayed in Shengyun City. Ou Yunxi is good at martial arts by nature, and originally planned to drive the expedition in person, but now, as the king of a country, he can't take the lead in everything, and he stays in Beijing under the persuasion of Li Mixian. The 60,000-strong army is directed at Jingzhou, and it is bound to break through the Heding City of Liang State.

Yan Jingyao, the general of Heding, was standing on top of the city at this moment, looking at the dangerous flying cloud stream from afar, and there were two young lieutenants and a group of soldiers standing behind him. Yan Jingyao was originally Cao Bo's old department, served in the army for more than 30 years, and is now nearly half a hundred years old, stationed in Heding City all the year round, and confronted the Xiping army in the past, since Cao Bo was defeated and died, the original general was quickly absorbed by the remaining two generals, only Yan Jingyao has not yet taken refuge in any of them, and now looks at the Feiyun Stream not far away, and smiles bitterly: "This general has just received the secret decree of the saint, His Majesty has ordered General Ye to personally lead 50,000 troops to this place to prevent the Liao army from attacking, I don't know what you think?" ”

Seeing that no one answered, he said to himself: "The perennial garrison of Heding City is only 5,000 people, and the confrontation with Ashan crossbow for so many years, there are few wars, and now Xiping has changed the name of the country, after changing the emperor, why has it become a constant war?" As a master of spy warfare in the matter, Ashan crossbow now wants to rely on spies or intelligence is already difficult to climb to the sky, the last news from Shengyun City shows that Emperor Liao has ordered a large army to assemble, and will attack Heding City in a few days, and the person who leads the troops is still our old acquaintance Ashan crossbow, as for the number of troops, I don't know for the time being. ”

Deputy General Zhou Zong asked in a deep voice: "General Yan, how should our department be deployed in this battle?" ”

Yan Jingyao sneered and said, "Deployment? What deployment? In that holy decree, it was only explained that General Ye would lead troops to defend the city, and as for the deployment of our army, there was no mention of it. When General Cao marched into Feiyunjian before, I don't know if he disliked us and dragged down the Cao family's pro-army, or disliked me Yan Jingyao was stupid with his troops, and ordered us to stay in Heding City. ”

Hearing this, everyone behind him looked angry, but they dared to be angry but didn't dare to speak.

Yan Jingyao sighed and continued: "I, Yan, joined the army when I was young, and now it has been more than 30 years, and I have few military achievements, and now I only have a five-grade military position, which is far inferior to those juniors. But after all, I Yan Jingyao is a veteran of the Jiepai battalion, when he followed General Cao Bo to fight in the south and the north, in this Heding City, killed the enemy seven into seven, and finally the Jiepai battalion died in addition to me, General Cao remembered the old feelings, and made an exception to promote me to the defender of Heding City. To this day, I, Yan Jingyao, have lived for 18 years, and I am ashamed of General Cao and the Jiepai Battalion. It is said that the soldiers are bearish, and they will be bears in a nest, because I am incompetent, and even everyone is looked down on by others, I am ashamed of you! Now the war is coming, and Rong Ben will be hard again! ”

The deputy generals Zhou Zong and Yu Lei stepped forward almost at the same time, clenched their fists and said in a deep voice: "The last general is willing to go with the general!" ”

The five thousand soldiers knelt on the ground at the same time, hugged their chests with their right fists, and said in unison: "I am willing to go with the general!" ”

Yan Jingyao's eyes were resolute, he turned to look at his soldiers, and sighed: "You follow the general, the military merit is less, the military salary is also less, this battle is nine deaths, the general does not force you, if someone is not willing to die with me, you can take a step out of the ranks, stay in the city, the rest of the brothers, accept my worship first, there is really a next life, Yan Jingyao is okay to be a cow and a horse for you!" ”

In the end, except for the 300 garrisons who dragged their families and settled in Heding City, the remaining 4,700 people all invited these soldiers to fight, most of them were like Yan Jingyao, who had been depressed for more than ten or twenty years, and had been despised for more than ten or twenty years. Yan Jingyao even scattered all his family wealth, and invited his soldiers to eat and drink a good meal, this practice of wine, there was no grandiose words, everyone just silently pushed the cup and changed the lamp, and ate meat.

At the end of the banquet, Yan Jingyao picked up the wine bowl and didn't say much, just said loudly: "Thank you." ”

On the field, 5,000 soldiers stood up in unison and suddenly clasped their fists and saluted.

After the banquet, the five thousand soldiers left the venue one after another, Yan Jingyao left Zhou Zong and Yu Lei, and the three of them sat around the table, and Yan Jingyao personally made tea for the two subordinates. Drinking a cup of rich fragrant tea and spitting out a sip of wine, Yan Jingyao looked at the two young lieutenant generals on the left and right, and sighed: "You two have joined the army since they were young and have followed me for a long time, and now because of my intentions, you want to die with me, and I Yan Jingyao feel ashamed." Now give you one last chance to choose, whether you want to live or die, you decide for yourself. ”

Zhou and Yu glanced at each other and nodded. Zhou Zong said with a smile: "The old general's words are really hurtful. The general is not afraid of death, and the two of us are not the greedy and afraid of death, if they escape from the battle, even if they can survive all their lives, we will not be able to raise our heads in this life, so please rest assured that the general is willing to die! ”

Yan Jingyao burst into tears, raised his hand to wipe his face, and laughed at himself: "His grandmother's, it's so windy." ”

Zhou Zong and Yu Lei looked at each other and smiled, and the two replaced the wine with tea and drank a cup of wine.

Zhou Zong asked again: "Dare to ask General Yan, our army has less than 5,000 men and horses, and the least we will face is the 40,000 Eastern Tiger and Wolf Army under the command of A Shanxuan, and the disparity in strength is so great, how should we fight?" ”

Yan Jingyao said in a deep voice: "It is not uncommon to have many victories in history, and the closest one to us happened in this Feiyun Stream, but the side with the superior strength and defeat at that time was the army of our Liang State. Since Ashan crossbow has given us a sample, let's draw a cat according to the tiger and treat it in the way of others. Early tomorrow morning, the whole army will march towards Feiyunjian, let's have another decisive battle against Feiyunjian! ”

Zhou and Yu's eyes were hot, but they didn't expect Yan Jingyao to have such a bloody side.

————

On the second day, just after dawn, the 4,700 defenders of Heding City were ready to march towards Feiyunjian under the leadership of Yan Jingyao.

In the last battle of this life, everyone went to death generously, bringing enough rations and weapons, not seeking to live for a moment longer, just to be able to kill a few more Liao soldiers. At the same time, the southern city of the Liao border, 60,000 troops were assembled, and Ah Shanxuan knew that Feiyunjian was dangerous, although he did not feel that the Liang army had the courage to fight a decisive battle, but in order to prevent accidents, he ordered Yang Qinan and Yang Qinan to lead 20,000 troops to the east to march from the mountain road, and left the 3,000 skilled armor soldiers on Yunxi Island by Yang Qinan's side to protect this disciple. Zhang Yuankang and Ma Juquan led 10,000 personal soldiers under their respective commands and marched by water.

On the eve of the army's march, Yang Qinan privately found Ah Shan's crossbow and asked, "Father-in-law, why don't you let my soldiers take the waterway?" ”

Ah Shan said in a deep voice: "Yesterday, I received a message from the flying pigeons in Qingyang City, Feng Jingquan has ordered Ye Baiye to lead an army of 50,000 to rush to the aid of Heding City. Compared with the experienced Liang army, our infantry combat experience is insufficient, the difficulty of attacking the city is much greater than the defense of the city, this is an indisputable fact, only to seize the Heding City first, in order to take the lead, now the defenders in the Heding City are only 5,000 people, it is a great opportunity for our army to attack the city. In the same way, Feiyun Stream is easy to defend and difficult to attack, and the waterways seem to be stable, but in fact they are full of dangers; if the battle between the two sides of the strait falls into disadvantage, the naval army is isolated and helpless, but it has become a live target. As a father, he didn't want to entrust the lives of the 40,000 army to the hands of Zhang and Ma. ”

Yang Qinan realized this, and asked in a low voice: "Could it be that my father-in-law is worried that the army will cross the Feiyun Stream, what will be the variables?" ”

Ah Shan said with a smile: "There is a saying in the book of war, those who can win due to the change of the enemy are called gods!" The situation on the battlefield is changing rapidly, and the father can't be the improvisable god of war, so he can only think about all possible situations before the battle. It is said that the dog jumped over the wall in a hurry, and his father did not want to gamble with his life, if Feiyunjian had been ambushed by the Liang army early, his father did not want this head to become Yan Jingyao's military exploits, and his father only believed in the knife in his hand, and only believed in my expedition to the eastern army, but could not trust others, let alone expect others to help my army break the formation. ”

Yang Qinan thought so, nodded and said, "The child has been taught." ”

————

The 60,000 troops are divided into two routes, still with the mountain road foot soldiers as the main force, and the last time is slightly different from the last time, this trip A Shan crossbow as the besieging side, more cautious, do not want Cao Bo's encounter to repeat the mistakes of the past on their own side.

The army marched to the middle section, Yan Jingyao led his subordinates to kill from the side, and at the same time the defenders of Heding City opened the gate to release the flood, which caught the Liao army by surprise, and the waterway army was confused for a while, but fortunately, except for a few soldiers who fell into the boat and fell into the water, there were no casualties, as for the foot soldiers on both sides of the strait, there were Ashan crossbows and Yang Qinan personally in charge, and they quickly turned the tide of the war.

40,000 against 5,000, Yan Jingyao's troops did not appear to be defeated by one blow as imagined, and resisted desperately. But after all, the disparity in strength is too great, half an hour later, none of the 4,700 people survived, and the army of Zhengdong died no less than 3,000 people.

Yan Jingyao was old and strong, taking the lead, and even though he was hit by several arrows in his body, he still struggled to kill seven or eight Liao soldiers, and was finally cut down by Yang Qinan. At this time, Yang Qinan gritted his teeth, stared at the corpse of the veteran in front of him, resisted the urge to whip the corpse, and said coldly: "Cao Bo's 100,000 army, but it has lost 3,000 of my brothers, and you Yan Jingyao, who has never had a brilliant record, has less than 5,000 men and horses, and he has also lost 3,000 soldiers in my department, hateful!" It's also respectable! Pass my military order and bury this person! ”

As a battlefield general, for the generals who dare to die calmly, even if they are in the enemy camp, the Eastern Army will sincerely admire.

After leaving a thousand foot soldiers to clean up the battlefield and bring back the wounded, Yang Qinan raised his right arm and said loudly: "The army continues to move forward, and within two hours, break through Heding City!" ”