The operation to capture Zheng Zongnan was planned and led by Sun Tu. The reason why he chose such a time-consuming and laborious method was because he had accepted the lesson of Lao Guan who died calmly in front of everyone. In order to prevent him from taking poison and committing suicide, he let His colleague and friend Mai Liang gave him wine mixed with Mongolian sweat medicine. After numbing it, he could easily get rid of the hidden danger, making it difficult for him to die.
Unable to seek death, Zheng Zongnan's last retreat was completely cut off. Although he gritted his teeth and persisted at first, Sun Tu would not be polite to him at all and immediately ordered torture to extract a confession. After a night of using his methods, his whole body was bruised and bruised, like a bloody gourd, but his mind was still clear and he was not in danger of his life.
Only then did Zheng Zongnan truly understand his situation. In the desperate situation where he could only live and suffer, he finally chose to succumb. After all, he is not a real Khitan, but a Han from the north, and his loyalty to the Liao Kingdom is not enough. In addition, he has been lurking in the Song Dynasty for many years and has become accustomed to the peaceful life in front of him. The ambition he had when he was ordered to come has long been wiped out. Now he can only make the choice that is best for himself.
As soon as he opened his mouth, Yanmen Pass became noisy and chaotic for a while. To be honest, even Tian Boyuan had never thought that there were so many Liao spies hiding under his nose. Not only among the civilians who had just arrived, there were seven or eight spies who had been hiding for a long time in Guancheng. One of them He is also an officer at the north gate of Yanmen Pass.
After capturing the person and finding conclusive evidence, Tian Boyuan felt even more terrified. Because once they really collude inside and outside and find an opportunity, I am afraid that Yanmen Gate will be occupied by them in an instant. By then, if you want to defend Guancheng, you will have to pay an extremely heavy price. And during this period, I am afraid that the grain and grass baggage stored here will be deliberately damaged, which will inevitably severely damage the morale of the frontline troops, and even completely determine the outcome of the Northern Expedition's Song Army's defeat.
Fortunately, with the help of Sun Tu, these hidden dangers have been eliminated one by one, which finally makes people feel relieved, and also makes Tian Boyuan and other generals respect Sun Tu more and more. But Sun Tu was not too happy, but still worried: "Although the Liao spies have been eliminated in Yanmen Pass, everything is safe. But the current dilemma has not been resolved, and the elite Liao army is still outside. Waiting for hunting, I’m afraid our food baggage still won’t be able to be transported to the front line.”
Indeed, although Zheng Zongnan also explained the method of contacting the Liao army outside, when Sun Tu proposed to simply use the trick and take this opportunity to introduce the enemy into Guancheng, and then set up a strategy to ambush and annihilate them, Du Changguo was I tried my best to deny it.
His reasons are quite reasonable. If there is a mistake and the Yanmen Pass is completely broken and falls into the hands of the Liao people, no one can afford the consequences. Even if Sun Tu thought that this was a ploy to beat the dog behind closed doors, the enemy was totally unprepared and would inevitably collapse in an instant once they were ambushed from all sides. But he still couldn't convince the supervisor, and he then said with a serious look: "What if something happens? Yanmen Pass is so important, how can you ignore the safety of this place just because you are greedy for success? If there is something wrong, you can It’s not something you, I, and everyone in this pass can bear!”
When he said this, even Tian Boyuan began to waver. Having guarded this pass for a long time, he naturally knew the importance of Yanmen Pass to the entire Song Dynasty, even if it was only slightly.
Even if there was even the slightest possibility, they would not dare to take the risk. So in the end, this policy can only be abandoned.
And then they decided to ambush the north of Yanmen Pass, then lure the Liao soldiers to come, and then suddenly attack the strategy also ended in failure. Although they did use the communication method instructed by Zheng Zongnan, the letter that was sent outside remained untouched all night, so did the Liao people have no idea of capturing Yanmen Pass at all
After waiting for a few more days, this strategy had to be abandoned. As a result, there was only one last option left before Sun Tu and the others - throw out the bait and lure the enemy to the bait!
But this time, even Tian Boyuan couldn't accept it: "General Sun, your method is too risky. If you lead the Huben Army officers and soldiers to pretend to be a escort team heading north, after attracting Liao soldiers to attack you, If you then use the smoke as a sign to let your subordinates lead the army to rescue you, have you ever thought about what the consequences will be if something goes wrong and we are a little late, or if you are unable to hold on?"
"Yes, Marquis Yue, this matter is too dangerous, please think twice." Even Du Changguo, who had some opinions on him, tried his best to dissuade him: "In my opinion, the front line should already know that there is something wrong in the rear. When the time comes, they will definitely send troops and horses to search for the whereabouts of those Liao people and completely annihilate them, so why take such a big risk? You have made many contributions to the court, so why do you care about this little thing?"
Sun Tu narrowed his eyes and glanced at him: "Is this a trivial matter? Now the war on the front line is about to break out. If we send troops southward, it will only add countless troubles to Tong Shuai and the others. If this leads to the defeat of the decisive battle, our guilt will be great. My grandson Although I am not very talented, now that I am here, I should do my best to help the front line solve the trouble. Besides, even if our Tiger and Ben army is no longer useful, it is not difficult to hold off the Liao army of equal strength for a day or two. As long as During this period, if General Tian can arrive with his troops, he can completely eliminate this Liao army."
Seeing that Sun Tu had completely made up his mind, Tian Boyuan and Du Changguo finally stopped trying to persuade him and could only clasp their fists and say: "Since General Sun is so dedicated to serving the country, we can only listen to your wishes and be fully prepared. "
"Haha, you don't have to worry too much. As long as our army prepares more arrows and we are prepared to fight, nothing will go wrong." Sun Tu then smiled with satisfaction and proposed again. requirements.
Tian Boyuan readily agreed to this, and immediately ordered people to open the warehouse and transfer a large part of the bows and arrows stored here to the entire Huben army for use. It is said that these 5,000 tiger soldiers are themselves forbidden troops, and their weapons and armor are far superior to those of the ordinary Song army. Even the bows and crossbows can be equipped for almost five people. And now, after receiving supplies from Yanmen Pass, this number has reached an astonishing level, with an average of two people having a crossbow.
With this kind of bow and crossbow equipment, Sun Tu believed that even if he encountered a strong enemy, as long as he found a dangerous place for them to defend, he would be able to defend it for seven or eight days.
Now that the plan had been decided and everything had been arranged, Sun Tu no longer stayed, and immediately led his five thousand tiger troops out of the customs and embarked on the road north. However, what is different from when they came here is that their costumes have changed today. Except for a thousand soldiers and horses who are still the same, the others have changed into the clothes of ordinary people, pretending to be civilian husbands, and each pushed up Got the car on the road.
Of course, these soldiers only wore civilian clothes on the outside, but they all wore armor on the inside. And what was placed in the car were weapons and arrows. As long as the enemy doesn't come, as long as they really dare to attack the grain transport team like before, they will be greeted by the most violent counterattack, as well as the Yanmen Pass defenders following closely!
If catching spies in the customs before was like hunting foxes, then Sun Tu's operation this time could be called hunting wolves. What he wants to hunt is the group of wild wolves from the Liao Kingdom that wander in the wilderness in the north, with no fixed whereabouts, but also ferocious and cunning!
In fact, Sun Tu was not the only one who wanted to hunt wolves. Qin Gan, who had issued a military order and came from the front line, was more eager to find and annihilate this Liao army than he was.
But what made him feel tortured was that after several days, he had not even touched the Liao army, let alone found its whereabouts.
In fact, Qin Gan had spent enough time and his scouts and spies worked hard enough to carefully search the area nearly two hundred miles away from the front line. Although they did find some traces of Liao troops stationed in the camp, they still couldn't Following this clue, I often find nothing.
At this time, he had already understood that the leader of the Liao army was also a cautious person, and he was best at concealing himself. He was even always on guard against the encirclement and suppression of the Song army. This naturally made him feel even more annoyed: "If we go one or two hundred miles further south, we will almost reach the Yanmen Pass area. Do you think they will be so close to Yanmen Pass?"
"It's hard to say. Judging from the previous clues, they came here for the military rations shipped out from Yanmen. It's easier to get them if they get closer." A subordinate guessed casually.
"But there are tens of thousands of troops stationed in Yanmen Pass. How can the thousands of Liao troops be able to compete? Since they are guarding us, they will naturally guard that side." Someone else objected.
"No, we overlooked one point. Most of the defenders in Yanmen Pass are soldiers and horses that were mobilized later. They don't have the courage of our border troops, so how can they dare to leave the pass at will?" Qin Gan suddenly thought of this. , looked serious and said: "Time is running out, we must go south as soon as possible. If we can no longer search everywhere like before, we must go to Yanmen Pass first!"
When this Song army of 20,000 people rushed south quickly, the other two Song and Liao armies were already very close to each other, and the Liao army, which was more skilled in field combat, noticed their position before the Song army.
When he heard about this, Xiao Yanping, the commander-in-chief of the Liao Army, suddenly had a flash of light in his eyes: "Does the Song Army actually dare to send people to transport grain and grass?"
"It seems to be true. When I looked at it from a distance, I found that except for a thousand soldiers and horses, they were all civilians, and they were also pushing small carts..." The scout who came to report the news immediately reported.
"Only a thousand people escort the grain team to the north..." Xiao Yanping rubbed his hand on his giant hard bow, and slowly showed a strange smile: "Do they really think of me as a fool? It seems like This is just a piece of bait, just to catch us out. No wonder there is no movement at Yanmen Pass now, it must be that our people have been exposed."
"Ah... Then, what should we do?" These Liao cavalry are used to solving problems through combat, and others only follow the orders of their own generals.
"It's getting dark now, let's wait and see. As long as the opportunity is right, it would be a good idea to eat this piece of bait." Xiao Yanping smiled with murderous intent and full of confidence.