The east gate of Yongqing County was broken by Zhao Bufan, Wu Yanguang led the Liao soldiers to resist with all their might, but they could no longer stop the spirited Western Song army, the city walls were lost one after another, the two sides launched fierce street battles, and the Liao defenders were devastated.

After a fierce battle until late at night, Wu Yanguang knew that the general trend had gone, and led the core elite to break through through the melee, and luckily escaped from the West City Gate with more than 1,000 people.

Zhao Bufan did not pursue the defeated general of this remnant army, quickly took control of Yongqing County, and after resting for the night, he waved his army south at noon the next day, and marched into the Liao State Sanzhai on the way from Yongqing to Yijin Pass and Waqiao Pass.

In order to cover the strategic transfer of the Liao defenders of Yijin Pass and Waqiao Pass, the defenders of the three villages fought desperately, but after all, they could not resist the high morale of the East Route Army, in just one day, the two Dazhai were lost one after another, and only the last Dazhai at the intersection of the west side was left to resist stubbornly.

In order to evacuate as soon as possible, the Liao defenders of Yijin Pass and Waqiao Pass were forced to abandon their armor and baggage, travel lightly and quickly, and retreat to Xincheng County in the west as if fleeing, while Li Miao and Zhai Jin, who had been pinned down in the south of the two major passes, quickly broke through the enemy forces behind the pad and successfully recovered Yijin Pass and Waqiao Pass.

Since then, the Yongqing defense line carefully arranged by Yelu Dashi has been completely broken.

But Zhao Bufan is still very dissatisfied with this situation.

His original plan was to quickly break through the three villages of the Liao State, and then trap the Yijin Pass and Waqiao Pass alive with Li Miao and Zhai Jin in the south, and knock out the elite of the Liao State stationed in the two passes, so as to completely annihilate the more than 60,000 Liao soldiers and horses who built the Yongqing defense line, but because the last Dazhai of the Liao State could not be defeated alive, it was impossible to complete the blockade and encirclement, so that the 20,000 elite soldiers of the Liao State in Yijin Pass and Waqiao Pass successfully transferred and retreated, and the soldiers and horses of the two villages of the Liao State that were broken also gathered in the last Dazhai and became a nail that was extremely difficult to pull out.

This time, it's not that the soldiers don't work hard, but the terrain chosen by the other party is too difficult to fight, the siege equipment can't go up at all, and the Dazhai built by the Liao people is very strong, and the engagement area is extremely narrow, so no one can break through in a short time.

Zhao Bufan personally tried to rush through a few formations, but he quickly ordered a retreat after rushing halfway.

While will and courage are important, it does not mean that objective realities can be ignored.

Earlier, he fought hard to fight Yongqing City, that was because the siege force was three times that of the other party, the siege equipment was sufficient, the soldiers of the Western Army were well-trained, and Yongqing was not a particularly terrible dangerous fortress, and he could not attack for a long time because he lacked the confidence and tenacious will to win, so he had to hold on to his will to boost morale and gather strength.

But now if this situation is brainless, it is not to boost morale, but to go up to die, how many people are not enough people to shoot, he has been mixed in the Great Song Dynasty for so many years, it is naturally impossible to do such a meaningless stupid thing, let alone let the soldiers under his command sacrifice in vain, so after experiencing the actual situation, he made a decisive decision, gave up the idea of annihilating the other party, and turned to surround this Liao Dazhai first, intending to eat this soldier and horse steadily.

These actions also completely convinced the arrogant generals of the Western Army, they are all smart people, and they can naturally feel that Zhao Bufan not only has extraordinary courage and firm will, but also has a cool head and clever means of using troops, and these are the qualities of an excellent commander.

They really had a thought in their hearts - this Northern Expedition might really be successful.

This kind of thought was an irrepressible temptation for every Great Song general, and their thoughts and mental states gradually changed under this influence.

............

On the third day of the siege of the lonely village of Liao, Zhao Bufan ordered Li Miao and Zhai Jin to lead 100,000 troops to the west to advance into Xincheng County, while Zhai Xing led 50,000 troops to the east to Wuqing County, where the Liao State was weak, leaving only Hu Cheng to lead 10,000 troops to stay in Yongqing, while he continued to besiege the lonely village of Liao with the Liangshan Army and the officers of the Water Margin Army.

A few days later, Zhai Xing successfully conquered Wuqing, and the Han people of Wuqing welcomed him, singing and dancing, and cheering.

Zhao Bufan then ordered Zhai Xing to repair on the spot, and at the same time ordered Chai Jin of Sikou Pass to transport grain, grass and armor as soon as possible, so that this army, which had experienced the Yongqing offensive and defensive battles, could complete the replacement of armor as soon as possible and make full preparations for the next big battle.

This trimming is also very necessary, because the armor forging technology of this era is very advanced, the armor and shield are very tough, and the weapons are particularly easy to curl or collapse in the slashing of each other, except for a few rare divine blades, most weapons must be retracted and polished after a vicious battle.

If you forcibly let the soldiers continue to fight with weapons full of gaps, then the decline in combat power is by no means a matter of one or two layers, and the knife with a curly blade is not even different from a wooden stick......

At the same time, Li Miao and Zhai Jin also led 100,000 troops to successfully enter Xincheng County in the west, and they did not know whether Wu Yanguang, the chief general of the Liao State, received an order from Yelu Dashi, or whether he made his own decisions, in short, he gave up Xincheng County and concentrated his troops to retreat to Qigou Pass, which was dozens of miles north of Xicheng.

This Qigou Pass is a strategic place, although it is not as good as Yijin Pass and other Xiongguan fortresses, but it is also a dangerous place, to the west is Yizhou of Liaoguo, to the north is Zhuozhou, Li Miao and Zhai Jin of Xincheng County whether they attack Zhuozhou, or go west to Yizhou, then they must first hit Qigou Pass, but the terrain of Qigou Pass is extremely dangerous, easy to defend and difficult to attack, Li Miao did not dare to enter the army without authorization, but sent someone to pass the news to Zhao Bufan.

At this time, it happened to be the eighth day of Zhao Bufan's siege of the lonely village of Liao, and after careful consideration, he asked Li Miao to temporarily stand still, waiting for him to pull out the lonely village of Liao, and at this time, the lonely village of Liaoguo also fell into a desperate situation, cut off water and food, and was isolated.

Many generals of the Liangshan Army and the Water Margin Army asked for battle, hoping to attack again, but they were all rejected by Zhao Bufan, he has now made up his mind, if the other party does not break through, he will not attack, he does not believe that such a desperate village can survive for too long.

On the twelfth day, the Liao people seemed to be unable to hold on, and sent many scouts to observe from afar, as if looking for weak points.

Zhao Bufan knew that they already had plans to break through, and strictly ordered all troops to strengthen the garrison, and at the same time, he gradually relaxed his heart.

In fact, he was also worried that the other party would drag on for too long, after all, the battle situation was ever-changing, tens of thousands of troops were dragged here, and he was far less relaxed than it seemed, but what he never dreamed of was that he had just breathed a sigh of relief in the morning, and suddenly a sentry horse came to report in the afternoon, saying that Lu Junyi had led the Five Tiger Cavalry back.

This news shocked him a little dazed, and he didn't come back to his senses for a long time.

According to the earlier plan, the Five Tiger Cavalry was going to follow Zhi Yanzhi as a surprise soldier, so what happened when they suddenly rushed back to the battlefield on the East Road?

After thinking about it, he didn't understand the reason, and when the Five Tiger Cavalry arrived at the camp in the evening, he immediately secretly called Lu Junyi and Lin Chong to his military tent, and asked urgently: "Second master, Brother Lin Chong, why did you come back, didn't Zhi Yanzhi convey my order?"

The eyes of the two were obviously more puzzled than him, they looked at each other, Lu Junyi looked back at the outside of the tent again, and then lowered his voice and said: "General Zhe only said that we should return as soon as possible, and never said any orders." ”

Zhao Bufan's expression changed.

Shi Qian and Dai Zong didn't deliver the letter?

Orihiko disobedience?

After thinking sullenly for a moment, he asked again, "Then have you ever seen Shi Qian come to the army?"

Lin Chong nodded immediately: "I saw Brother Shi Qian, he and Dai Zong seem to have sent a letter to General Zhi, and they rested overnight and left the next day." ”

"It's strange, Zhe Yanzhi is disobedient and disrespectful?" Zhao Bufan frowned, this situation stumped him, he couldn't understand what Zhi Yanzhi meant, and he didn't even know how to deal with it.

At this time, Lu Junyi seemed to remember something, and suddenly interjected: "Although Zhi Yanzhi did not convey an order to us, he asked us to convey a word when we parted!"

Zhao Bufan looked over suddenly.

"What?"

Lu Junyi replied: "The original saying is that the Five Tiger Cavalry is too conspicuous, and the cavalry is not suitable for walking paths!"

Zhao Bufan was stunned for a moment, but soon understood, and secretly rejoiced in his heart: I really almost made a big mistake, the Liao people are staring at me so closely, how can they not pay attention to my descendants, if the Five Tiger Cavalry does not appear on the frontal battlefield, Yelu Dashi will definitely be suspicious, thereby increasing the risk of exposure of that strange soldier, and the most important thing for this strange soldier is to hide his tracks, did the Five Tiger Cavalry throw away all the horses?

Fortunately, this guy is fighting with his brains, otherwise I'm afraid something would really happen!

Lin Chong looked at him and lowered his head in contemplation, his face was also strange, and he couldn't help asking, "Extraordinary, but what happened?"

"Huh?"

Zhao Bufan came back to his senses, and then shook his head: "Oh, it's nothing, it's just some communication problems, it should be a trivial matter, you don't have to think about it, by the way, how is the battle situation of Tian Hu?"

Speaking of this, the faces of the two of them were a little excited, Lu Junyi nodded and replied: "A complete victory, Tian Hu and his brothers and other chief evils have been ambushed, except for the rebels who died in battle, most of the remaining captives are waiting for the government to repatriate to their hometowns, and a few 3,000 strong people have been absorbed by us, and now they have followed us to the camp."

In addition, Zhi Yanzhi saw that the rebel generals Bian Xiang and Sun An were very brave earlier, thinking that the Northern Expedition was imminent and the imperial court was upright in employing people, so he tried every means to capture the two alive, forgave the two of them for their great crimes, and used the righteousness of the family and country to influence them, which made them sincerely obedient, and even helped to rebel against many rebel generals such as Zhu Jing and Shan Shiqi. ”

This was a big surprise, and Zhao Bufan was a little happy.

"Okay! Okay! Very good!! Zheyan really has the temperament of a general, this recruited army of soldiers and horses will be temporarily included in the Water Margin Army, let Xu Guanzhong and Xiao Jiasui take it for a while, and not be in a hurry to participate in the war, so that they can feel more of our ambition of the Northern Expedition and wash away the habits of those bandits. ”

"Honorable Order!" Lu Junyi surrendered his order, and then smiled and continued: "Then if there is nothing else, we will go down first!"

Zhao Bufan smiled and nodded.

"Go ahead, rest assured for a few days, the Five Tiger Cavalry don't need to participate in the battle for the time being...... By the way, rest well, remember to show me the battle record. ”