Chapter 653 The Last Battle

Li Canghai looked out to the Liao Kingdom in the north and said, "What is this? The calm before the storm?"

Zhao Mu smiled and said, "Haha, I guess so. But this peace won't last long. When we left the capital, I sent people to Lingzhou City at an urgent speed of 800 miles to inform Wang Taiwei and others to advance. It took us more than ten days to get here. I believe that the messenger from King Zhongxiao will arrive soon, and the vanguard of my Qi Kingdom should have already fought with the Liao Kingdom."

Just as Zhao Mu expected, the Qi army led by Wang Xian and Wang Jin had already begun to attack the western front of Liao. Facing Qi's undeclared war, Liao could only passively defend.

Although the terrain of the western grasslands is open, the Liao army now dares not to confront the Iron Pagoda under Zhao Mu. They can only rely on the strongholds and city defenses on the border to delay the attack of Wang Xian and others.

Moreover, Wang Xian and others also learned the lesson from the previous battle of Lingzhou, and the army was no longer so arrogant and underestimated the enemy. They no longer underestimated the enemy and rushed forward, but adopted a strategy of steady and steady progress and nibbling away at the enemy step by step.

After all, according to Zhao Mu's plan, although the main forces were attacking from all four sides, they were also restrained from all sides.

In the current situation where "the advantage is on my side", there is no need to go deep into the enemy's territory alone to fight a war of annihilation. All we need to do is to nibble away at the enemy's advantage step by step and advance steadily.

Moreover, after Wang Xian and others attacked, they immediately sent messengers to inform King Zhongxiao and Prime Minister Lao Zhong of Yanzhou.

To inform King Zhongxiao was to ask him to send troops north from Yanmen Pass to support them, and to inform old Prime Minister Zhong Jinglüe was to ask him to quickly transport food and fodder to the army.

This time, Song and Qi were fighting together, so the food and fodder logistics did not need to be supplied by Lingzhou alone. Now that food and fodder were abundant and the army was at full strength, the Liao army on the western front was in a state of retreat.

After King Zhongxiao received the news, he immediately sent a messenger to inform Zhao Mu.

He personally led the main force of the Song army out of Yanmen Pass, with 120,000 elite soldiers, and directly attacked Huanzhou, Shuozhou, Yingzhou, Yunzhou, Weizhou and other places outside Yanmen Pass.

Moreover, this time, King Zhongxiao also had friendly forces to help him, that is, the Beggars' Sect who had always wanted to contribute to the country. Although this group of people could not help much in marching and fighting, the martial artists could still do things like robbing camps, poisoning, and burning food and grass.

However, although the Beggars' Sect offered to help, Qiao Feng did not come.

This is because Qiao Feng also has his own children.

Although in this life, Qiao Feng no longer had any entanglement with the sisters Azhu and Azi, he managed to save his reputation and the lives of his adoptive parents.

And Qiao Feng's wife was neither a famous lady nor a martial arts heroine, but just an ordinary, law-abiding farm girl.

Qiao Feng's wife was chosen by Qiao Sanhuai and his wife. They thought that the woman was pretty, honest, kind-hearted, and a good woman for a family. After getting the girl's consent, they promised her to Qiao Feng.

Qiao Feng's wedding was very low-key.

Zhao Mu was not invited because Qiao Feng felt that the gap between himself and his brother Zhao Mu was too big.

A beggar calling the emperor of the Song Dynasty a brother is an insult to his brother.

Besides, Zhao Mu is busy with many things, and if he were to be informed, Zhao Mu might be in trouble.

After thinking about it, Qiao Feng simply didn't tell Zhao Mu. He decided to tell him when he had a chance to serve him.

Although his wife was very ordinary, Qiao Feng was very satisfied with her.

The girl was filial, and after she got married, she was filial to her parents-in-law and treated her husband with respect. At least she did not interfere with Qiao Feng's drinking, and every time Qiao Feng came back, there was a hot meal.

Qiao Feng's virtuous wife was considerate and caring in every aspect of household chores, sewing and mending.

Meeting such a woman, Qiao Feng was very content.

Soon they had a child. And Zhao Mu's Northern Expedition happened to coincide with Qiao Feng's wife's birth.

Although Qiao Feng wanted to help Zhao Mu, the elders of the Beggar Gang said, "The Liao people are weak now, and our Song army is at its peak. There is no need for you to go in person. We can do it for you." Qiao Feng also did not want to add to the killing, so he agreed to the elders' suggestions.

So this world-famous hero is now at home with his wife and children, while the elders of the Beggars' Sect came to help.

However, this time the Song army really did not need Qiao Feng and others to take action, because the current Song army was no longer the "weak Song" of the past.

For this Northern Expedition, the Song army made the most adequate preparations and also summarized previous tactics.

That was the "infantry and cavalry encirclement tactics" that Zhao Mu had used when he conquered Western Xia and Uighur.

The key point of this strategy is speed. Gather chariots, cavalry and other fast mobile forces to quickly surround the main cities. Then the infantry will slowly follow up and use the advantage of numbers to knock down several other unimportant cities one by one.

This tactic was proven to be effective every time Zhao Mu conquered the Gaochang Uighurs.

Because of this, the main force of the Song army led by King Zhongxiao divided its forces to attack Huanzhou and Yingzhou, ignoring Shuozhou, and instead led all the mobile forces to besiege Yunzhou Datong, the western capital of the Liao Kingdom.

Just as the fighting on the western front was in full swing, the messenger sent by King Zhongxiao finally arrived at Xiongzhou Pass.

Zhao Mu was checking the battle map when a soldier stumbled in and said, "Report! Report to His Majesty Zhongdi! King Zhongxiao! King Zhongxiao has marched out of Yanmen Pass. Your Majesty, please march in as soon as possible!"

Hearing this, Li Canghai's heart suddenly sank. Although she didn't want to face it, this day finally came.

Zhao Mu stood up and said, "Okay! Order the three armies to advance according to the original plan. Now we have sufficient food and grass, and the siege equipment we brought has also arrived. Order the Yizhou garrison to attack eastward to take Zhuozhou, and order the Mozhou garrison to advance north to support. The rest of the army will follow me and quickly attack the Liao Kingdom's Nanjing Youzhou City!"

"Yes!" Then the messenger in Zhao Mu's tent immediately went to each camp to deliver the order.

Zhao Mu put the map away, then picked up his sword and helmet. He said to Li Canghai beside him, "Uncle Master, let's go. Let's go to Nanjing City and take a look."

Li Canghai sighed, then followed Zhao Mu out of the tent.

With the rumbling of trumpets and the beating of drums, the army gathered in an orderly manner.

Zhao Mu walked up to the command platform and shouted, "Soldiers! I stood here when I was the King of Zhongshan and won the first battle for our Song Dynasty against the Liao Dynasty. Among the people present now, there are also those who helped me build my career. Now I am still standing here because this is the last battle between our Song Dynasty and the Liao Dynasty. After this battle, we can take off our armor and return to the fields. The Song Dynasty and our wives and children will no longer be trampled by the Liao people's iron hooves!"

Zhao Mu drew his sword, raised his arm and shouted: "My sons! In order to prevent our descendants from being bullied by foreign races, follow me to defeat Liao and take back the old land of Yanyun! I declare! The army will march out immediately!"

As Zhao Mu raised his arm and called out, the morale of the soldiers reached its peak, and they all shouted "Long live the enemy". Then Zhao Mu got on his chariot and was the first to rush out of Xiongzhou Pass. The army then drove out one after another, heading towards their destination, Nanjing Youzhou City of the Liao Kingdom.

(End of this chapter)

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