The Northern Expedition Army was divided into three routes. On the West Route Army side, Emperor Xuande appointed Pan Xun, the Jiedu envoy of the Zhongwu Army, as the chief commander, Wang Sheng, the governor of Daizhou, as the supervisor, and Li Jizong, the veteran general of Huwei, as the deputy general. The three commanded the army. fifty thousand. Li Jizong was the grandfather of Princess Gong's wife Li Mulan, so King Gong and his wife also took errands from the West Route Army.
At the beginning of February, the army set off and headed north all the way. After successfully capturing several small towns, they finally arrived outside the city of Huanzhou, which was one of the fourteen states of Youyun occupied by the Liao Kingdom.
When the Liao army guards closed the city, the supervisor Wang Sheng ordered Li Jizong to lead his troops to attack the city. When they agreed on the strategy of attacking the city, King Gong listened. There were four gates in total. Seeing that all three gates were separated, Gong The king was in a hurry, he knocked on the north door of the sand table with a big hand, and said loudly: "The north door is handed over to this king!"
Wang Sheng glanced at him, then turned his eyes to the coach Pan Xun, Pan Xun looked down at the sand table without making a sound. That is the prince. He was pampered in the capital, he learned a good kung fu, and he had never been on the battlefield before, and had never experienced the bloody storms of the battlefield. He sent Prince Gong to attack the city. Who will go back and explain to the emperor? If you don't send it, you will offend King Gong again.
"General Li, what do you think?" Pan Xun didn't answer, and Wang Sheng kicked the ball to Li Jizong.
Before Li Jizong could speak, King Gong grinned at him flatteringly: "Grandfather, you can send me to fight the North Gate! The emperor asked me to come out to practice, but you have not allowed me to send troops, how can I practice?" Pulling a helping hand, she turned her head and asked the princess, "Mulan has been itchy for a long time, hasn't she?"
Li Mulan ignored him, but when her grandfather looked over, there was a faint plea on the face of the heroic female general.
Li Jizong is not a person who spoils his children. Although King Gong is a prince, he is also his own grandson-in-law. Since he has learned martial arts, how can there be a reason why generals cannot be on the battlefield? Moreover, the Western Route Army was coming in such a threatening manner that there were only 8,000 Liao soldiers in the city of Huanzhou. This victory was considered a great victory.
"Okay, the north gate will be handed over to King Gong and the princess!" Li Jizong happily took the lead.
King Gong was overjoyed, and patted his daughter-in-law in high spirits, Li Mulan glared at him, the husband and wife walked out of the tent side by side, and prepared to dispatch troops. On the way to the North City Gate, King Gong thought of something and asked in a puzzled way: "The grandfather won't lose to those two, why did the emperor arrange for his grandfather to be a lieutenant?" The arrangement, Prince Gong is really embarrassed.
Li Mulan looked ahead without explaining, but she knew the reason. The Li family was a famous general for generations, but his grandfather was a general of the former Han Dynasty. When Emperor Gaozu changed the dynasty and led troops to attack the former Han, it was his grandfather who led the troops to resist. After several months of hard work, he refused to surrender. The emperor of the subjugated country surrendered voluntarily, and the emperor Gaozu met his grandfather, and his grandfather became the general of Da Zhou.
The Emperor Gaozu and the current sage treat his grandfather well, and his grandfather also made countless military exploits for Da Zhou. However, after all, it is the surrender of the general, and the emperor uses it, or it is better to use Wang Sheng and others to rest assured
But my grandfather didn't care, what my grandfather wanted was to be loyal to the country.
The battle raged, and in the blink of an eye, Huanzhou City was plunged into a bloody battle, and veteran Li Jizong led 20,000 elite soldiers. It didn't take two hours to break through the city gate and swarmed in.
The next day, the good news that Huanzhou City was broken was rushed to the capital by 800 miles.
Emperor Xuande applauded.
The big week started smoothly, and Zhao Heng was relieved. He returned to the palace in the evening, stayed in the front yard for a while, and went to the backyard to accompany the princess and daughter. It was the first time he had come so early since he set off from the army, and looking at the man's happy expression, Song Jianing guessed that there was good news on the front line, and deliberately pretended not to understand and asked, "Why do you have so much leisure to coax Zhaozhao, my lord? ?"
Zhao Hengzheng held his daughter and let her little feet step on his knees to play. Hearing this, he smiled and said, "Victory on the Western Front, Huanzhou City has been destroyed."
Song Jianing was puzzled, where is Huanzhou City
Zhao Heng saw it, put down his daughter, and ordered the maid to get the map.
Song Jianing got a map from him when he read the "Records of the Grand Historian" before. Shuanger knew where to put it, and quickly spread it on the low table. Song Jianing moved over with his stomach, ready to look next to him as before, but this time the couple could no longer talk and listen quietly, because there was a little princess in the family.
As soon as Shuang'er laid out the map, Zhaozhao stood up from his father's arms and lay on the table to play with the map, so frightened Song Jianing hurriedly covered it.
"It can't be pulled, it's broken, my mother is crying." Zhao Heng grabbed his daughter's chubby hands with one hand and said with a smile.
Zhaozhao looked at her mother with her mouth open, why did she cry when she was torn
The prince said so, Song Jianing had to cooperate, pretending to rub his eyes, anyway, one is her man and the other is a daughter, not afraid of shame.
Zhaozhao was reluctant to let her favorite mother cry, so she hurriedly used her little hand to hold her mother's hand to wipe her tears, shaking her head to make sure she would stop talking.
Song Jianing "breaks tears into laughter" and kisses her daughter rewardingly.
Zhao Heng watched her coax her daughter silently, and when her daughter sat down obediently again, Zhao Heng raised his hand and pointed out the location of Huanzhou City to the princess. City, and then take Shuozhou, Yingzhou, Yunzhou, the four northwestern states, and then return to the Central Plains.”
Song Jianing looked at the four small places on the map, and knowing that Prince Gong and his wife were in the West Route Army, she couldn't help but ask, "It took just over half a month to retake one prefecture, leaving three prefectures, wouldn't there be two more? It can be beaten in a month?" She was born in May, if that's the case, Mulan's sister might be able to rush back to congratulate her second child.
Zhao Heng laughed, marching to fight, it's really that simple.
Holding his daughter in his arms, Zhao Heng's eyes fell on the Liao Kingdom in the north. The Liao Kingdom is vast and stretches thousands of miles from east to west. This time, the father and emperor dispatched troops very quickly, and the Liao Kingdom was at war with Goryeo in the east. For the time being, there was no time to deal with it. Therefore, the two armies of the west road and the middle road won the two states in one breath, but the war only took place. It's just the beginning, no one can be sure what will happen later.
These are very complicated, and Zhao Heng didn't say it to his concubine.
Not long after the capital received the news of the West Route Army and the Middle Route Army, the East Route Army also got the news.
In the coach's tent, the privy envoy and coach Cao Yu leaned back on the chair, holding the good news in his left hand, and rubbing his forehead irritably in his right hand. In this Northern Expedition, the imperial court sent 200,000 troops, and his East Route Army accounted for 100,000, and the two together were as much as him. But the emperor said that his 100,000 was mainly to contain the main force of Liao, and he wanted him to march slowly until the west road and middle road took the land of the eight states on both sides, and then rushed over to join his east road and attack in one fell swoop. Youzhou.
This battle strategy is indeed good, but he has not yet started to fight here. The West Road and the Middle Road have already made military exploits. In the future, the Three Route Army will be evenly divided. When it comes to merit and reward, his East Route Army will not be credited. least
Cao Yu was uncomfortable, and he was not the only general in the Eastern Route Army who was uncomfortable. When he heard that the two troops had made great achievements, they rushed to the commander's tent and asked Cao Yu to send them troops. Seeing that it was almost time for someone to come, Cao Yu simply called all the generals of his subordinates over to discuss countermeasures.
"Pingzhang, what do you say?" After some discussion, Cao Yu asked Guo Xiao, who had always been silent. Guo Xiao was Guo Boyan's son and Princess Duanhui's consort. Although he was young, Cao Yu did not dare to despise this descendant.
Guo Xiao looked around. The tents were all senior military generals who had made military exploits. He didn't care about it, and he didn't care whether the Northern Expedition was won or lost.
The implication is that Cao Yu will do whatever he asks him to do, and he will never object.
Cao Yu nodded, since there was no objection, he got up and left his seat, walked to the sand table, pondered for a moment, and pointed to Zhuozhou Road in the south of Youzhou City: "The emperor ordered me to wait for the slow march, mainly because I want to wait for the three armies to merge before attacking Youzhou. State, but I think it's better to take advantage of Liao's lack of preparation, let's take advantage of Zhuozhou and Youzhou first. Wang Sheng and Han Da have only 50,000 soldiers and horses.
Military generals, military generals, are waiting for meritorious service on the battlefield. Only with meritorious deeds can they stand out. Otherwise, why should he be a privy envoy who has low meritorious deeds
"Okay, let's set off now and catch Youzhou by surprise! Haha, that Empress Dowager Xiao is probably hanging out with Han Rang at the moment. When the adulterer and the prostitute calm down, Youzhou is already ours!"
Cao Yu's proposition was immediately supported by the generals. The generals were rude and took the opportunity to tease the Queen Mother Xiao, the newly widowed regent of Liao. Guo Xiao smiled in agreement, but because the Queen Mother Xiao turned to her stepsister in the capital, the stepmother was a widow, and the Queen Mother Xiao was also a widow, and there were new men around.
With the decision, Cao Yu dispatched a 90,000-strong army to set off first in the afternoon, with a light vehicle and a light vehicle, and the food and grass traveled slowly, leaving behind for the time being.
The Liao Kingdom, the capital of Shangjing, received the report of the loss of Huanzhou City and Xincheng one after another. Empress Dowager Xiao, who was only 28 years old, frowned slightly, worrying but not panicking. After reading it twice, the Empress Dowager Xiao handed the memorial to the Prime Minister Han Rang and said sadly, "Da Zhou is coming, what should we do?"
Liao Prime Minister Han Rang took the memorial, and after reading it, he threw it on the table and said calmly: "The queen mother does not need to panic, the minister will dispatch troops to support Youzhou, the Liao iron cavalry runs fast, and will definitely be able to catch up with the city. He arrived in Youzhou before breaking. And Yeluxiong told his ministers that he expected that the old thief from Xuande would take the opportunity to enter, and he had already deployed it in advance.
Speaking of Emperor Xuande, the Empress Dowager Xiao smiled, with beautiful eyes and disdain in her eyes: "Is he still here? Last time Yeluxiong gave him two arrows, his courage has already been broken, right?"
Han Rang thought so too.
After teasing Emperor Xuande, the Empress Dowager Xiao's expression returned to heavy, she left the seat, walked to the map hanging high on the east side, and looked up. Looking at her, the burly man hugged her from behind. The Empress Dowager Xiao clapped his hand, raised her chin towards Youzhou and Zhuozhou, and said unhurriedly: "The Dazhou soldiers are divided into three groups, but they are actually sounding east and west, but they are really called. Xuande old thief is right, I really can’t make time to repel his three routes at the same time. In this way, you can follow me to Youzhou, let’s repel the east route first, and then go to support Yunzhou and Weizhou.”
Han Rang was shocked and asked in disbelief, "You want to recruit yourself?"
Empress Dowager Xiao raised her eyebrows and asked softly, "Can't you?"
Although she is a woman, she dares to look down on the world.
Han Rang loved her the most, and suddenly picked up the person and went to the inner room.
It is a fact that he has an affair with the queen mother, but the old thief Xuande would never have imagined that his queen mother is not an ordinary woman.