Knowing that there could be no further delay, Yeqian Hucheng immediately sent an order: "Go ahead, the front team becomes the rear team, and the rear team becomes the front team. Retreat immediately! Send an order to all the light cavalry to spread warning around and be ready to fight at any time! Send! I quickly sent an order to Lakshen, cancel the plan, and retreat immediately!" When the generals saw Yeli Hucheng suddenly giving such a serious order, they couldn't help but be stunned. When they came to their senses, they subconsciously felt that the situation was serious, and they all agreed one after another and went down to comply with it. .
While chasing Yanyun Army Lakshen in front, he received an urgent order from Yeqi Hucheng. Unexpectedly, he felt that Yeqi Hucheng might have discovered something. He thought about the strange situations he saw during this pursuit, and felt a little bad in his heart. He immediately ordered his cavalry to stop the pursuit and turn back on the spot.
At the same time, a Yanyun army of 50,000 to 60,000 men, led by Li Xu, was ambushing in the woods. Seeing the Khitan army turning back not long after, they couldn't help but feel surprised.
A general asked Li Xu, who was leading the army: "General, why are they back again?" Li Xu stared at the approaching Khitan army outside the woods, frowned and murmured: "Something is wrong! They are the vanguard, why did they suddenly turn around? What?" Then his heart moved, and he quickly turned around and ordered to the generals around him: "Send the order and prepare to attack!" The generals looked at each other, and one of the generals hurriedly said: "General, the task given to us by King Yan is to cut off the rear. We are the enemy's vanguard, and there is no order from King Yan. If we attack without permission and disrupt King Yan's entire strategic intention, I am afraid it will be a big sin!" Several other generals nodded one after another, also worried about this.
Li Xu said decisively: "Things have obviously changed, and we must make a decision immediately! If King Yan is blamed, I will bear all the responsibility and execute the order!" The generals looked at each other, clasped their fists together and said: "Since the general has given the order, we will obey it. .If King Yan takes the blame, we will receive the punishment together with the general!"
Lakshen led 50,000 Mongolian cavalry and retreated. When passing by the woods, suddenly arrows as dense as locusts flew out from the woods. The Mongolian cavalry were caught off guard and were shot so hard that they fell over and fell into a mess. At this moment, there was a sudden sound of killing from all directions, earth-shaking, and countless Yanyun cavalry were seen rushing out of the woods from the hillside and attacking fiercely, like a group of tigers descending from the mountain! The Mongolian cavalry rushes to fight!
Yanyun's cavalry offensive was extremely fierce, killing the Mongolian army corpses and flying with blood. The screams echoed over the wilderness, and the blood dyed the green grass bright red. However, although the Mongolian army was in an extremely disadvantageous situation, they still fought to the death and refused to fight. Defeat is like a mountain falling.
The armies of both sides fought a bloody battle, and the Mongolian army suffered heavy casualties. The remaining soldiers broke out to the north. Seeing that Yan Yunjun could not catch up, he stopped pursuing. At this moment, a herald suddenly felt the notice: "General Li, King Yan is here!" Li Xu and others were already waiting, and hurried to greet him, only to see King Yan coming from the south with more than 100,000 cavalry. Li Xu and others greeted him. When the two sides met, Li Xu and others sat on horseback and bowed with clasped fists: "King Yan!" Yanyun's military regulations and wartime conditions kept all etiquette simple, so Li Xu and others did not need to dismount and salute.
Yang Peng glanced at the battlefield littered with corpses and asked, "Did you fight the enemy's forward?" Li Xu clasped his fists and said, "This is the order from the general! When the general saw the enemy's forward suddenly retreating, he expected something to happen. Changed, so he made his own decision and ordered the army to attack!" Then he worshiped: "Please punish the king of Yan!"
Yang Peng waved his hand, "You are not wrong! Otherwise, if we had planned carefully, we wouldn't have caught even a single hair!" Li Xu and others looked at each other, and Li Xu cupped his fists and asked, "King Yan, what happened?"
Yang Peng said: "Not long ago, the scouts sent a message saying that the main force of the Liao Kingdom suddenly turned back! I realized that our plan might have been leaked, so I led all the cavalry to prepare to intercept their forward, but it was still a step too late! If it hadn't been for you If we attack immediately, our work will be in vain this time!" When the generals heard Yang Peng's words, they all breathed a sigh of relief, and then felt a little depressed. Li Xu frowned and said: "This plan of King Yan can be said to be very clever, but I don't know how it was discovered by Ye Qian Hucheng?" His heart moved and he asked in shock: "Is there a traitor?"
Yang Peng shook his head, "That's not necessarily true! Our plan is to take advantage of the situation. Although it is very clever, it also has a big flaw. In order to prevent our intentions from being noticed by the other party's scouts, it must be carried out dozens of miles south of Tanzhou. Arrangement, but in this way, although it avoids the problem of being noticed by the scouts, it brings another problem, that is, the opponent will not catch up with our army after chasing for a day and a night. In this way, resourceful people will inevitably They will become suspicious! Ye Qian Hucheng is not a mediocre person, so it is not surprising that he is aware of this problem!" Li Xu and others couldn't help but nodded.
Yang Peng smiled and said: "But this time we have gained something. You took the initiative and severely damaged its forwards. This is one; second, the Khitan army will definitely be more cautious after this time. We will defend the Yanyun Sixteenth Prefecture." It feels a lot easier." Then he frowned, thinking: The Khitan people will definitely become more cautious after this experience. Although this is good for defense, it also makes it difficult for our own side to get a chance to defeat the Khitan army.
Yang Peng raised his head and said, "After cleaning the battlefield, the army will retreat to Niulan Mountain." Li Xu promised with clasped fists. Yang Peng glanced north, turned his horse's head, and ran towards the south. More than 100,000 cavalry turned around and ran towards the south.
Yang Peng had to abandon Tanzhou in order to implement the strategy of luring the emperor into a trap. Now that the strategy failed to achieve the effect, he had to retreat to Niulan Mountain and Shunzhou. Shunzhou and Niulanshan are both to the south of Tanzhou, Shunzhou is to the south of Niulanshan, which is now Shunyi District, Beijing, and Tanzhou is now Miyun. Shunzhou and Niulan Mountain are both located on the west bank of Qidu River.
Yang Peng returned to Niulan Mountain, and then the armies also retreated to Niulan Mountain one after another. The mood of the generals was a little low, because a carefully planned pocket formation failed to achieve the expected results. Only Li Xu intercepted the opponent's forward in time, but he only annihilated 30,000 people from the opponent. It's better than nothing.
Yang Peng glanced at the generals and said with a smile: "What's wrong? The enemy just ran away. Why are they all so listless?" The generals felt that King Yan was right and puffed up their chests. Yang Jing yelled angrily: "Damn it! Isn't it good that these Khitan people just sneaked into our encirclement? They actually gave up halfway and ran away! How hateful!" Everyone couldn't help laughing, and Li Xu joked: " Yang Jing, when you chop the enemy, will the enemy stand still?" Yang Jing couldn't understand what Li Xu meant. He opened his eyes and said angrily: "Of course the enemy will move! What do you mean by this? What do you mean?" Li Xu chuckled, but didn't explain. It wasn't that he didn't want to explain, he just felt that explaining to Yang Jing was asking for trouble, so he simply didn't say anything.
Yang Jing, however, refused to give up and shouted angrily: "Li Xu, do you think that Yang Jing is stupider than you? I tell you, I am not stupid!" Li Xu smiled and clasped his fists: "Yes, yes, yes, Yang Jing is much smarter than me! In front of smart people, I have no choice but to say nothing!" Yang Jing grinned and let Li Xu go. Yang Peng smiled and shook his head.
A scout rushed into the tent, and everyone's eyes immediately focused on him. The scout rushed to the tent, knelt down and reported: "To inform King Yan, the Khitan army has stationed troops in Tanzhou, and there will be no further action for the time being."
Yang Peng couldn't help but secretly thought: "This is really called stealing the chicken but losing the rice!" Originally, he deliberately abandoned Tanzhou with the intention of luring him into a trap, but he didn't expect that Ye Qian Hucheng discovered the trap, causing the whole plan to fall short, and Tanzhou was also lost! '
Yang Peng is not a person who likes to dwell on the past. These thoughts only flashed through his mind, and then he thought about the current situation. He raised his head, looked at the scout, and ordered: "Continue to investigate!" The scout agreed, stood up and exited the tent.
Yang Peng stood up, walked to the map, looked at the map and thought about it. The map hanging on the map shelf is a complete map of Yanyun and its surroundings. On this map, there are two big arrows that go straight into Yanyun. One is from the west, and the huge arrow goes straight into Ningxia. The situation there is probably more dangerous than here. I don’t know what the situation is now. Another huge arrow points from the northeast to the Sixteenth Prefecture of Yanyun from the Liao Kingdom. It is the current Khitan Army. Yang Peng has no confidence at all whether he can win this battle.
On the map, in addition to these two large arrows, there are two smaller arrows. One is from the Khitan Kingdom's Zhongjing Road to Longmen Mountain, and the other is from Tubo to the Qingtang Dynasty. These are the Goryeo Army and the The Tubo Army; there is also an arrow marked with a dotted line in the southwest, which represents Dali. As for why the dotted line is marked, it is because intelligence shows that Dali has colluded with Tubo and other countries, but so far, the Dali Kingdom It has not publicly stated that it will break off its alliance with Yanyun and join the anti-Yanyun alliance, so this enemy is still uncertain. In addition, there are red circles and numbers representing the Song Army in Guangdong and Guangxi, which represent the defensive strength of the Song Army.
The above ones all represent enemy forces. As for the Yanyun Army, they are represented by black arrows, black circles and numbers. There are competing arrows in all directions pointing at the enemy forces. Judging from the situation on the map, there is no trace of the enemy. I can't feel the danger on Yanyun's side, but the real situation is that Yanyun's situation is very unfavorable! Although Yanyun is strong, it can fight against several countries at the same time with the power of one country, and two of the powerful countries still almost attack with all their strength. It is very difficult to resist, let alone win! This situation is really a bit like the time when the Qin Dynasty used the power of one country to fight against the six countries!
However, there is also a situation that is beneficial to Yan Yun, that is, Yan Yun still has a friendly army in the south, the Eighth Prince. At this time, on the map in front of Yang Peng, the Eighth Prince's army was marked in orange, pointing directly to Guangnan East Road. Yang Peng didn't even know about the eighth prince's defection before the battle. It is no exaggeration to describe Yanyun's current situation as dangerous!
Yeqianhu City sent a large number of scouts to investigate Yang Peng's movements. After confirming that there was no danger, they mobilized the army and slowly moved towards the south. When Yang Peng discovered that Ye Qian was coming in large numbers from the Tiger City, he originally planned to adopt a surprise attack strategy. However, seeing that the enemy had sent out too many scouts, there was no chance to take advantage of it, so he had to temporarily give up the plan of a surprise attack with surprise troops. Shan and Shunzhou stepped up their defense arrangements to prepare for the surprise attack from Yeli Hucheng's army.
Let’s put it aside for now and let’s turn our attention to other battlefields. The 200,000 troops led by Liu Guangshi have captured several prefectures and counties around Hongzhou, and Hongzhou has been cut off from the outside world. Seeing the Eighth Prince's military strength, many prefectures and counties along Jiangnan West Road tore down the Yanyun flag and raised the Song Dynasty's dragon flag one after another. However, those Yanyun officials stationed in these prefectures and counties were either killed or captured. Prisoner, the whole of Jiangxi seemed to have become the world of the Eighth Prince in an instant. The Eighth Prince was initially wary of the army's attack on Jiangnan West Road, but after hearing the good news from the front line, he became extremely excited. Suddenly he felt that sweeping the entire Jiangnan was not a dream!
In the direction of Nanling, Cao Yong and other Song troops received Zhao Heng's strict order and led the army to counterattack northward. Yanyun's army retreated steadily, and the prefectures and counties originally controlled by Yanyun were captured by the Song army one after another. The Guangzhou palace continued to receive good news, and was so excited that it began to plan to return to Tanzhou. Huang Cong even suggested that in order to demonstrate his majesty's great achievements, the Tanzhou palace should be expanded in the style of the Bianliang Palace. Huang Cong's suggestion was very pleasing to the Holy Heart, and Long Yan was delighted. In the past few days, the Guangzhou palace continued to hold celebration banquets. Ministers and noble families from all over the country came to the palace one after another to donate money, food and treasures, and shouted long live the Song Dynasty and long live His Majesty.
In the direction of Sichuan, the Dali Kingdom finally mobilized 200,000 troops from across the country, led by General Duan Zhichun, to attack Sichuan from the southwest. Xilin, Qiong, Mahu, Jiazhou, Lizhou, and Yazhou fell one after another, and the morale of the Dali army was greatly boosted.
The Tubo army violently attacked Qingtang. Many markets around Qingtang fell. Several Tubo armies had already divided into a combined attack and were besieging Qingtang City.
Just when the war situation was tense everywhere, in the Ningxia region, many people fled in panic from the west into Xiliang Mansion, saying one after another: "Yumen Pass has been lost! Yumen Pass has been lost!" It turned out that just a few days ago, 10,000 soldiers and horses After holding on for more than ten days, Yumenguan was finally unable to resist and was captured by the Xiliao army. The 10,000 captured soldiers fought unyieldingly and were all killed from top to bottom! Hundreds of thousands of troops from Western Liao broke through Yumen Pass and rolled eastward. The situation is already extremely critical!
The monarchs and ministers of the Song Dynasty who were having a banquet in the palace in Guangzhou suddenly received a report that the Xiliao army had broken through Yumen Pass and entered Ningxia. They were very surprised because they had never known that Xiliao had joined this grand battle against Yanyun before. ! After being surprised, the monarchs and ministers of the Song Dynasty rejoiced, and some ministers sang praises to Emperor Qinzong of the Song Dynasty: "Your Majesty's holy virtues moved heaven and earth, so much so that foreign people from thousands of miles away were willing to serve your Majesty! With such destiny, the Song Dynasty will surely be revived, and your Majesty's name will go down in history. !" Only then did the rest of the ministers react, secretly annoyed that they had been beaten to the throne by him, and then they stood up one after another and sang in praise: "Your Majesty is an unparalleled sage monarch. Under the radiance of your Majesty's virtue, the Great Song Dynasty It will surely be revived, long live your majesty!" Song Qinzong was very happy and had a feeling of elation. He felt as if he was really the holy king and wise master who could make the foreign tribes surrender as mentioned by the ministers. He stretched out his hand With his right hand, he said loudly: "Since God's destiny is mine, I will certainly not fail God's will!"
Just as Song Qinzong squinted his eyes to enjoy the supreme glory, the sound of rapid footsteps came from outside the hall. Everyone couldn't help but look towards the door and saw a Privy Councilor walking up quickly.
Huang Cong smiled and said to Zhao Heng: "Your Majesty, there must be good news again!" Zhao Heng smiled and nodded and said: "Perhaps Marshal Cao Yong has recovered Tanzhou!" Everyone shouted long live together. The Privy Councilor rushed to the foot of the jade steps, bent down, held up a memorial in both hands, and said loudly: "Your Majesty, a good report from the front!"
Huang Cong immediately stepped forward, unwrapped the memorial, climbed up the jade steps, and presented it to Zhao Heng. Zhao Heng received the memorial and opened it. After reading it, he raised his head and said with a smile: "Although Grand Marshal Cao Yong has not yet recaptured Tanzhou, it is almost there. Marshal Cao Yong has already recaptured Hengzhou." Out of joy, they all praised the emperor's holy virtues and martial arts, and the song of praise and virtue kept the crowd busy for a long time.
Bang bang bang...! A huge explosion suddenly came. The hall fell silent, and everyone looked confused and surprised. One minister couldn't help but murmured: "What's going on? It seems like someone is setting off fireworks!" Another minister shouted with joy: "It must be the people who heard about the good news from the front line and celebrated spontaneously!" The ministers' eyes lit up and they all agreed. The emperor chuckled and said: "Okay! I just hope to have fun with the people!"
At this moment, there was another loud bang bang bang bang! The sound seemed to be much closer than before, and even the tiles on the roof of the hall seemed to shake. Everyone felt something was wrong. A minister frowned and said, "It doesn't seem like fireworks! The sound is too loud!"
At this moment, a general rushed in anxiously. He didn't bother to kneel down to salute, and clasped his fists and said urgently: "Your Majesty, something serious has happened! The Yanyun Army has invaded the city!" Suddenly the monarchs and ministers in the hall suddenly Hearing these words, it was like a thunderclap. Everyone was stunned for a while and there was no movement. The hall was so quiet that you could hear a pin drop.
Huang Cong reacted first and shouted hysterically at the general: "That's nonsense! The Yanyun Army is in the midst of a rout, how could it be possible that they suddenly broke into Guangzhou! You lied about military information, aren't you afraid of military law?" The emperor and all the ministers also reacted at this time. The emperor looked very unhappy, and all the ministers angrily accused the general. The fiercest among them actually said that he collaborated with the enemy and treason and should be executed. The general was as anxious as anything, and for a moment he didn't know how to explain.
Bang bang bang... There was another loud noise, which seemed to be closer than before. The noisy hall suddenly became quiet, and all the ministers looked at each other in shock. The general said anxiously: "Your Majesty, I will never lie about the military situation. It is indeed Yan Yun's army who has invaded!..." Huang Cong pointed at the general's nose and shouted: "You are talking nonsense! You should tell me, Yan Yun's army has invaded!" How did the Yun Army come here? Could it be that they can't fly?"
The general hurriedly explained: "They didn't fly here, they came from the sea!" The monarchs and ministers were stunned, and then they remembered that the Yanyun Army also had an unparalleled naval force. They had been receiving good news before, but they turned this case Forgot about it! Just listen to the general continue: "The Yanyun navy suddenly appeared just now. Our army thought it was a merchant fleet. Unexpectedly, they suddenly launched a fierce attack with artillery fire! Our side was caught off guard and suffered heavy losses and chaos. Watergate and a city gate were also It was blasted! Immediately, the Yanyun navy landed nearby and rushed into the city!" The monarchs and ministers were stunned for a moment. Although they felt that what the general said should be true and reasonable, they still didn't want to believe it in their hearts.
At this moment, the huge roar of artillery fire came again, and the entire palace shook immediately. The remaining bricks and tiles fell straight down. This time the artillery fire actually came straight towards the palace. The monarchs and ministers screamed in surprise and ran around. The tables originally filled with fine wine and delicacies were staggered, and the fine wine and delicacies were scattered everywhere! By this time, they could no longer believe it.
In the chaos, some ministers escaped from the palace, and most of them followed the bodyguards to protect the emperor and members of the royal family. At this time, the sound of killings in the city was loud, mixed with chaotic cries. It was really chaos! The emperor and ministers were so frightened that they lost everything and fled out of Guangzhou through the North City Gate in a hurry. Then they ran wildly all night. Only then did the exhausted people stop to rest. Everyone was in a state of shock. He looked like a minister and no longer looked like a minister, and he no longer looked like an emperor. He looked like a frightened bird that had just escaped a disaster.
An officer rode up on a fast horse. The officer dismounted and knelt down and said: "Your Majesty, the entire city of Guangzhou has been captured!..." The emperor and the ministers were shocked and angry when they heard this. The emperor screamed hysterically. He said: "I have 50,000 defenders in Guangzhou. How come it fell so quickly?" The officer didn't know how to answer this question, so he clasped his fists and said: "A Yanyun army has left Guangzhou and is chasing us. Your Majesty, please immediately Take shelter!" When the emperor and the ministers heard this, they immediately ignored the blame and turned pale. Huang Cong hurriedly said to the emperor: "Your Majesty, it's not a good time to stay here for a long time. It's better to get off quickly!" Zhao Heng panicked. He nodded.
The fleeing army ignored their fatigue and continued to flee north. Bad news keeps coming. The Yanyun army behind them is constantly approaching, and another Yanyun army is moving west along the west river and has already broken through Duanzhou. The area around Guangzhou has become a mess. , out of control. The emperor was panic-stricken and hurriedly sent an order to Cao Yong, ordering him to immediately lead all his troops back to support. At this moment, he couldn't care less about recovering Jinghu South Road.
Cao Yong rested in Hengzhou and prepared to continue the attack on Tanzhou. However, he suddenly received an urgent order from the court, saying that Guangzhou and its surrounding areas had been captured by the Yanyun navy and that his majesty and the court were fleeing. He was ordered to immediately lead an army to return for reinforcements. Cao Yong and others were shocked when they received such an order, and then they couldn't help but worry about their relatives who stayed in Guangzhou. Cao Yong couldn't think about it carefully and quickly ordered all the troops to assemble to prepare for reinforcements.
What happened after all, let’s see what happens next.
