The famous book tour starting from the Red House

Chapter 493
The words are divided into two parts, one for each table.

Let’s say that on the second day of Ma Kuo’s envoy to Liao, Song and Liao both marched their troops to Baigou and confronted each other across the only bridge across the river.

It's a coincidence that the main generals of Song and Liao are none other than Yang Keshi and Yelu Dashi, old enemies.

When Yelu Dashi saw that the other side was the defeated general of the previous team, he immediately took it to heart and sent Liao soldiers to provoke him from time to time, trying to lure Yang Keshi to take the initiative to attack again.

Ordinarily, Yang Keshi is not very good-tempered, but because he had just suffered a defeat, it was only because of Tong Guan's selfishness, and his past relationship with Zhong Shidao that he was exempted from punishment. Act impulsively.

Therefore, no matter how the Liao people called for formation, Yang Keshi remained motionless. Later, he simply out of sight and out of mind, and withdrew himself to the rear camp. He only ordered his deputy general Zhao Ming to stay behind, and sent the yellow banner used for surrender to the camp. Inserted on the river bank.

This confrontation lasted for two days, and both sides lived in peace.But on the third day, Zhao Ming was annoyed by the Liao army's quarrel, so on a whim, he planted the Huangbang banner in the middle of the bridge.

In this way, it can be regarded as stabbing a hornet's nest, and then Liao soldiers stepped forward, pulled out the flag and handed it to Yelu Dashi.

Yelu Dashi took it and took a closer look, and was enraged by the arrogant words above. He tore the flag into pieces angrily, and cursed, "It's really deceiving people too much. I really think that there is no one in Daliao!"

After scolding, he immediately ordered his soldiers and horses to attack the Song army with arrows.

In an instant, a rain of arrows shot towards the Song army on the opposite bank. The Song army was unprepared for a while, and countless casualties were shot.

But because there was an order from the Xuanfu Division, Zhao Ming did not dare to order to fight back, so he had to order the army to retreat, and at the same time sent someone to report to Master Zhong urgently.

How could Yelu Dashi be one of Yi Yu's people? He saw that the Song people chose to be beaten passively, so he had nothing to say, so he immediately ordered the vanguard to seize the bridge and attack the Song army.

However, there was chaos on the side of the Song army. After hearing the news, the master Zhong Dao who was originally sitting in the rear ordered a counterattack decisively, and said, "Since we are engaged in a battle with the enemy, is there any reason to wait for death?"

But He Shen stopped him and said, "No, has General Zhong forgotten the government's order and Tong Taishi's order? If the situation expands and ruins the imperial court's strategy of recruiting, who will take the responsibility?"

A group of military generals headed by Zhong Shidao were almost laughed angrily, and they all spoke out ridiculed.

"How can there be such a reason in the world, can you only be beaten, but not fight back?"

"If you can recover Yanjing without bloodshed, what do you want me to do?"

"He Zhizhou is willing to sit back and accept his merits, but my generation of warriors has no such shame!"

Seeing the anger of the crowd, He Shen didn't dare to say more, so he had to retreat in dismay. Seeing this, Zhong Shidao ordered Yang Keshi to return to the front line to prevent the Liao army from crossing the river, and the reinforcements would arrive soon.

When Yang Keshi rushed to the battlefield, the vanguard of the Liao army had already crossed the bridge and was waiting for the follow-up army to cross the river. Seeing this situation, he hurriedly ordered Zhao Ming to organize a counterattack, and he himself pushed forward.

After a lot of effort, Yang Keshi was able to stabilize his position with great difficulty. Just as Yang Keshi was about to take a breath, he saw a part of the Liao army splitting up and galloping towards the west. It is necessary to cross the river upstream.

At this time, Zhong Shidao sent veteran Zhao De to lead an army to support, Yang Keshi hurriedly shouted, "Go west quickly, go west quickly, from where the Liao army will cross the river!"

Hearing this, Zhao De did not dare to be negligent, so he wanted to lead his troops to the west, but it was a step too late, the Liao army had already crossed the river relying on the swiftness of their cavalry.

Facing the menacing Liao army, Zhao De was timid for a while, and turned his head to temporarily avoid his sharp edge. Yang Keshi's eyes were tearing, and he cursed, "Old man, abandon the battle and run away, why do you serve the country?"

After scolding, Yang Keshi turned his horse's head and led his troops to meet him, trying to block the advance of the Liao army, but he could only take care of one end, but not the other. Xia Chong came over, formed two wings with the Liao army in the west, and surrounded the Song army in the middle.

With a fire in his heart, Yang Keshi led his troops to fight hard, and almost got in front of Yelu Dashi several times, but it was a pity that they all failed.

The Liao army was also not to be outdone, and even to a certain extent, the Liao people were more determined to fight. In their view, the Song people were taking advantage of others' dangers, and their behavior was particularly shameful. man a lesson.

In this way, the two sides started a bloody battle along the coast of Baigou. After an hour of fighting, Zhao Ming was hit by an arrow in the arm, and his troops were defeated and then retreated.

Yang Keshi was hit by a barbed arrow in his body, which hurt his bones, and blood flowed all over his boots, but he was still angry and cracked his canthus. Bear the title of his enemy.

Under Yang Keshi's insistence, the Zhongshidao army arrived in time, but Yelu Dashi did not dare to attack the crowd with a few, so he led his troops back to the other side of Baigou, preparing to launch a night attack on the Song people at night.

Unexpectedly, Master Zhong had already guarded against this move and ordered his soldiers to keep beating the golden drum at night. Yelu Dashi saw that the Song Army camp was fortified and heavily guarded.

At the same time that Yang Keshi was fighting Yelu Dashi in Bairi, the West Route Army stationed in Fan Village was also attacked by Xiao Qian, the king of the Fourth Army of Liao.

However, when Xin Xingzong led his troops into Fan Village that day, he saw that there was wilderness all around him, except for a lonely mountain not far away, so he didn't send scouts to investigate.

And Xiao Qian just grasped Xin Xingzong's mentality, and dared to climb the mountain quietly to check the truth of the Song army.

When he saw that the Song army had arrived, they were unprepared and there was a commotion everywhere, Xiao Qian made a decisive decision and attacked with [-] cavalry.

Xin Xingzong's troops were caught off guard, and they really suffered a big loss. Fortunately, the former generals Wang Yuan, Song Jiang and others led their troops to resist desperately. Finally, Xin Xingzong reacted, rearranged his troops, and killed Xiao Qian.

Looking at the results of these two battles alone, it is not difficult to find that the Western Army of the Song Dynasty is quite powerful at this time, even if it is not as powerful as the Liao Army, it is not far behind. people.

But sometimes people are not as good as heaven, just after this battle, General Zhong Shidao reported to Tong Guan and asked him for instructions on the next move.

After careful consideration, Tong Guan, in order to avoid further deterioration of the situation and the shattering of his idea of ​​winning without a fight, ordered his entire army to return to preserve his strength.

In his opinion, Baigou is only [-] miles away from Xiongzhou, and it is a breeze for the army to withdraw.

As a veteran general who has fought on the battlefield for decades, Zhong Shidao would not be so naive. After receiving Tong Guan's order to withdraw his troops, he immediately called his subordinates to discuss.

Yang Keshi said, "At this moment, the Liao army is in full swing. If we withdraw, they will follow. I'm afraid there is something wrong."

Zhong Shidao took this very seriously and obviously had the same idea, but He Shen jumped out and said,

"There are no more than [-] Liao people, and our army has [-], plus the Eastern Route Army is [-]. How dare the Liao army hit a stone with an egg? This time, it has violated the government's will to start a war. Isn't it a general? Do you want to make mistakes again and again?"

Zhong Shidao saw that He Shen took the anti-decree to talk about the matter, so he had to agree to withdraw the army.

In order not to alarm the Liao people, at dusk that day, Chong Shidao shilled his supplies to withdraw to the south, and the army waited until night before quietly going south under the cover of the elite horse army.

Although the arrangement of cultivating the teacher's way is very appropriate, how can the movements of the nearly [-] troops be completely covered up?

As soon as the Song army moved, they were detected by the Liao scouts. Yelu Dashi got the report, and hurriedly rode to the bank to watch. Sure enough, he found that the main force of the Song army had withdrawn, leaving only a small number of soldiers and horses in the rear.

He immediately ordered someone to send a message to Xiao Qian, and the two soldiers and horses got together, and [-] cavalry took advantage of the night to bypass the Song army blocking the way, and hurriedly pursued the main force.

In the end, at a place called Gucheng to the north of Xiongzhou, the main force of the Song Army was chased.

As soon as the two militaries met, they immediately killed one place.

At this moment, Tiangong suddenly changed his face. First, the north wind blew, followed by pouring rain, and then there was fist-sized hail. The soldiers and horses of Song and Liao could not see it.

Under such circumstances, the infantry formation of the Song Army was chaotic, but Yelu Dashi and Xiao Qian took advantage of the cavalry, gathered the soldiers and horses together, and charged back and forth on the battlefield.

Without the help of the formation, how could the infantry be the opponent of the Ma army? As a result, the Song army was defeated. Under the impact of the Liao army, countless people died just from being trampled. Died in the chaos.

For the Song army, the worse thing is yet to come. After hearing the news, Tong Guan not only did not send troops to rescue, but ordered to close the gate of Xiongzhou, and no one was allowed to enter, so as not to let the Liao people take advantage of the situation to capture city.

Tong Guan's approach, if used in normal times, is actually not a mistake, but it is inappropriate at this time, because the Liao people only have more than [-] people, if they see that the Song army has a new force joining them, how dare they pursue it again? ?
Because of Tong Guan's mistake, the Song army suffered heavy losses. When he saw that the reinforcements from the West Route Army had arrived, and sent Xin Qizong and Xin Yongzong to lead the victory of the Jie army out of the city to help in the battle, the Liao army had won a big victory and returned safely.

After the war, from the south of Xiongzhou, the north of Mozhou, between Tangbo, and Xibaozhou and Zhending in Xiongzhou, the dead bodies of the Song army were everywhere, and countless soldiers and equipment were lost.

After some statistics, the East Route Army had nearly [-] troops and lost nearly [-] people, which can be described as a heavy loss.

Hearing the battle damage, Zhong Shidao seemed to have aged ten years, and he knew in his heart that with Tong Guan's character and status in the official family, the responsibility for the defeat would fall on him in all likelihood.

Teacher Zhong was right as he expected, Tong Guan was indeed planning in his heart at this time, he wanted to pin the blame on Zhong Shidao, but even if someone was responsible for the defeat, so what about recovering Youyun, could it be such a shameful outcome? Go back?
Thinking of Haikou boasted at the official's house, Tong Guan was in a state of confusion, he had no idea for a while, so he had to order the whole army to rest for three days, and then retreat to Hejian Mansion to make plans.

On the fourth day, when the army was about to leave, Ma Kuo's official letter arrived as scheduled.

When Tong Guan received the letter, he didn't take it to heart at first. He didn't want to read it a few times, but he immediately regained his energy and his face changed from cloudy to sunny.

Everyone rushed to Tong Guan's residence in a daze, even the teacher Zhong Dao was no exception.

After Tong Guan saw that everyone had arrived, with a smile on his face, he cupped his fists in the direction of Tokyo, and said excitedly, "Thanks to the blessings of the officials and family, the Liao people have already given in, and Yeluchun knows that his destiny is approaching, and he is going to fight against me." Song called Fan."

"what!"

"How is this possible?"

"No way, didn't they just win one game?"

When the generals heard the news for the first time, they couldn't believe their ears. Although the Liao people were in a bad situation at the moment, they finally defeated the Song army, so they shouldn't surrender so easily.

Zhuang Shidao ignored everyone's discussions, and led the crowd to ask, "Marshal, what conditions does the Liao people have?"

Hearing what Zhong Shidao said, everyone calmed down and looked at Tong Guan to see what he had to say.

A hint of embarrassment appeared on Tong Guan's face. After coughing lightly, he replied in embarrassment, "The prerequisite for the people of Liao to negotiate a peace agreement is that I hope that the Song Dynasty can let Yelu Dashi and Xiao Qian's [-] troops return north."

Everyone didn't understand why, they didn't understand Tong Guan's meaning, only Zhong Shidao's eyes lit up, and he asked anxiously, "But something went wrong when Yelu Dashi and the others retreated?"

Tong Guan nodded as if he had eaten a fly, and told the truth with a dark face, "According to Ma Kuo's letter, when the Liao army returned to the north, they were besieged in Langou by Mu Xu, the governor of Dingxiang. Dian, the entire army may be wiped out at any time."

Upon hearing the news, there was an uproar in the tent, and Xin Xingzong was even more puzzled, "Didn't it be agreed in advance that the Dingxiang army attacked the front line of Juyongguan? Why did they suddenly appear in the south?"

Wang Ting smiled wryly and said, "It's not that simple. It must be that the Dingxiang army sent troops from Feihukou and ambushed in the Hebei territory beforehand, and then took advantage of the victory of the Liao army and took advantage of their complacency to cut off their way back."

After listening to Wang Ting's explanation, everyone was like a child, showing resentment, and some whispered, "This is too bad. It is clearly using us as bait to seek benefits for himself!"

"That's right, we're here to fight to the death, but he's lucky enough to pick the peaches with ease!"

"This is called the fight between the snipe and the clam, and the fisherman benefits!"

Hearing these unpleasant words in his ears, Tong Guan's face became more and more ugly. Just when he couldn't help but want to explode, he saw Zhong Shizhong, the younger brother of Zhong Shi Dao, stand up and scolded everyone,
"Enough, stop talking nonsense, the commander has his own opinion! Besides, I waited for myself to fail and fought the battle like this. Should I blame others for not winning the battle and spreading it out? Aren't you afraid of being laughed at?"

After all, when everyone calmed down, Zhong Shizhong then reminded Tong Guan, "Commander, no matter what, the Dingxiang Army is our army of the Great Song Dynasty. Since we have won the battle this time, the commander should use Xuanfu to envoy him." Name, condolences for the officials. By the way, let's discuss how to deal with the trapped soldiers and horses of the Liao people!"

Tong Guan was shocked immediately, understood the unfinished words of the teacher, and thought to himself, "Yes, we must not let the people of Liao realize that Mu Xu is in harmony with the imperial court. Otherwise, if the people of Liao made peace with him in private, then the Didn't I make him a wedding dress for nothing this time?"

After thinking about the way, Tong Guan hurriedly answered, "What Duan Ru said is true, I should comfort the Dingxiang Army for the officials, and not let the soldiers feel cold!"

Speaking of this, he glanced at the crowd and asked, "I wonder who would like to be an envoy and go for this official?"

　I wish you all a happy Mid-Autumn Festival, reunion and success in everything!
　　
　
(End of this chapter)