Dawn of the Empire

Chapter 406 Long Halberd 30 (5)

On the Liyangjin pontoon bridge, the envoy stopped, waiting for the imperial army to clear the way.The magistrate of Junzhou was waiting for Qin Hui at the south of the bridge. Zhang Shuye was in the camp and could not leave without permission, so he also sent his lieutenants to welcome the imperial envoy.Meng Yuan sighed, galloped over, and together with several military academies, pointed at the pier of the pontoon bridge.One of his errands on this trip was to instruct the Song army guarding the bridge how to destroy the pontoon bridge built by his great-grandfather in an emergency.

The north wind blew from the river, and the Li bridge was crowded with people fleeing to the south, villagers pushing carts full of sorrow, old men with white hair and backpacks, and distressed women with children in their arms. They were all in ragged clothes, shivering in the river wind, and all of them were frowning.There were too many fleeing people, the pontoon bridge trembled and swayed constantly under the impact of the river, and the expressions on the faces of the people became more frightened and uneasy, pushing and shoving to the south.

"In the past few months, more than 40 people have fled across the river to Junzhou. The lower officials have tried their best to provide relief, and they have also asked wealthy households in the prefecture and counties to set up porridge sheds to do good. The snow, I am afraid that the fleeing people will not be able to bear it even more." Zhizhou Wang Shuyin reported with a worried face.Qin Hui glanced at him, and said slowly: "I should ask the imperial court for relief. Before that, I ask Mr. Wang to do his best." Every year to repair the embankment, replenish the pontoon bridge piles and bridge boats, Junzhou falsely reported the number , The amount of money embezzled is unknown.If you don't take out more to give relief now, it will be unreasonable.

Under Qin Hui's gaze, Wang Shuyin seemed to have seen through all the viscera and six internal organs, and said repeatedly: "Yes, yes, the humble job understands." At first, there was still some eagerness to ask for credit, but at this moment, there was nothing left. I was sweating a little, and I didn't dare to say the prevarication that "the relief cost is not small, and the tax has been collected in advance for five years".Qin Hui let out a "huh" and frowned as he watched Baixin pouring in from the pontoon bridge to Henan.

Three hundred miles away from the upper reaches of Liyangjin, Tiemuge squinted his eyes, and saw several wooden boats heaving in the waves of the big river.Because Temuge led his troops to harass Song State for a long time.Yelu Dashi appointed him as the general of Beiyuan, and asked him to command [-] cavalry to cross the river first and harass Henan.The Liao army was not good at maneuvering boats, so they recruited a hundred and ten boatmen, and found a few wooden boats. The big boats can only pass dozens of rides at a time, and the small boats can only ride three to five rides. Several boats can cross in one round trip More than a hundred rides.Hundreds of 'women', children, old and weak were escorted and knelt in a row on the North Embankment of the Great River, with the scimitars shining brightly behind them out of their sheaths. If the boatmen dared to cheat, their parents, wives, children and even neighbors would be killed instantly. .

But Temuge looked at the other side with a solemn expression. Although he had never heard the phrase "strike halfway through", he knew that this time was the most critical.There were very few defenders crossing the south bank of the river. The hundreds of cavalry who crossed the river first were chased away, and the defenders fled without helmets and weapons.Although Song Jun didn't light up the beacon, he didn't know when the Song reinforcements from the south bank would arrive.Although Temuge's face was calm, he was more nervous than anyone else.He was just a barbarian from Mobei, but Yelu Dashi handed over [-] cavalry to his command and entrusted him with important tasks.Thirty thousand warriors, in terms of strength alone, they can already keep pace with Bo Shenghuo and Mierbo.

Half an hour later, hundreds of cavalry had crossed the river, and there was no movement on the other side.The fleeing Song army was afraid of being dealt with by military law, so they dispersed in a rush, and they didn't care about reporting the military situation.An hour later, more than a thousand cavalry stepped on the south bank, but no Song army was seen. A few hours later, nearly ten thousand cavalry had crossed the river, and only a few hundred Song army infantry appeared. , The cavalry of the Liao army took advantage of the momentum to catch up, surrounded the Song army from both wings, and killed or captured them all.By the afternoon of the next day, [-] cavalrymen of the Liao Army had crossed the river, and Temuge finally crossed the Yellow River with his followers.

"Master Dutong, do you want to leave people to guard the ship?" the general asked.

"All of them were burned," Timuge said coldly, "in order not to leak the news of the army, none of the southerners who built the boats were left." He immediately stood on the bank of the South River, looking down at the vast yellow-brown land from a condescending height.The Mierbo people are different from the Khitan people who have lived in the Han area for a long time. Even as the head of the Wanfu, it was only since the Southern Expedition that Timuge believed that the Southern Dynasty was really rich. In a prosperous county, the population and wealth Worthy of a big tribe.It is much easier to seize a county than to annex a tribe in Mobei.It is said that Henan is the most affluent place in Song Dynasty.Looking at the faintly visible village in the distance, Temuge's eyes glowed with fanaticism. If Yelu Dashi really wants to conquer such a large area of ​​land and people, no matter how big the risk is, it will be worth it.

With the screams, all the boatmen who ferried the Liao army across the river were killed under the river embankment. The Liao army burned the ferry and lost their way of retreat. The main force crossed the river to attack Bianliang.

For more than a day, many nearby villagers learned of the news that the Liao army had crossed the river, and they fled in panic.Although the Song army defending the south bank of the Yellow River was numerous, it was difficult to concentrate its forces in a hurry. Not only could it not drive the Liao army down the Yellow River, but all the nearby Song army scrambled to retreat to Liyangjin Daying and Bianliang.Some Song generals retreated so quickly that they had never seen the cavalry of the Liao army. In order to avoid punishment, they made up lies about encountering the Liao army and retreating after a fierce battle. It ranges from tens of thousands to tens of thousands, and some people even claim to have seen the yellow canopy of Yelu Dashi.Zhang Shuye, the general manager of the Henan Horse Infantry Army, couldn't judge whether the Liao army was real or not, so he could only concentrate his troops and wait for it, and at the same time, he rushed to Bianliang for help.

The news of the Liao army crossing the river spread to Bianliang in the fastest time, the court was shaken, and the people in Tokyo were even more frightened. In one day, 10,000+ people left the city to flee to the south, and various vehicles were heading south The roads are crowded.The Privy Council was even more worried about the emptiness of Bianliang City's defenses. On the one hand, the officials were asked to order again to let the soldiers and horses of the world serve the king, and on the other hand, the soldiers and horses near Bianliang were shrunk to the capital.The officials also specially drafted edicts to the towns of Hebei, Xijing, Southeast, and Hedong camps, with gold plaques attached, and sent out in a hurry of five hundred miles, wishing to gather 80 forbidden troops to Bianliang to resist the Liao army.The news that the Liao army crossed the river and Bianliang shook, along with these tokens of troop deployment, spread in all directions.Since the founding of the Song Dynasty, the Liao army had never crossed the Yellow River, and the world was in a state of commotion for a while.

The Xijing camp was the closest to Bianliang, and the camp was deployed. After Cao Di received the gold medal, he ordered Xijing’s deputy capital to deploy Cao Xi’s 20 troops to the east to assist Bianliang. When they came to join forces, the two teams joined forces with [-] troops, and with great fanfare, they claimed that the [-] troops in the Xijing camp would assist Bianliang in the east.

"After joining forces with Yao Zhengping, don't rush forward, so as not to fall into the ambush of the Liao army by mistake. First, send a team of elite soldiers to the vicinity of Bianliang to check the military situation." Cao Di's eyes flickered, and he said in a low voice, "Wait for my news If the capital is lost, Shu'er's family will be saved if they can. You must be careful about this matter, and you would rather not do it, and don't let people catch it." Cao Shu Nai is the eldest daughter of Cao Di, who was married to Jing Wang Zhao Qi by the first emperor as his concubine.

Cao Xi is Cao Di's younger brother. Hearing this, his expression changed, and he looked at his brother again. Cao Di also looked at him, nodded slightly, and said nothing.Cao Xi was sure that he heard correctly, and said in a deep voice, "Yes, big brother." He looked around and saw no one else, and said, "Brother, this matter is not trivial, although we have more than a hundred thousand elite soldiers in hand, but The place in Xijing is narrow, and there is too little room for manoeuvre." He looked up at Cao Di, and only a brother could say that, after all, what he did was ransacking his family and destroying his family.

Cao Di shook his head slowly, and said with deep meaning: "You wait for my news, there is no room for maneuver."

Cao Xiruo realized something, nodded and said: "I understand, brother." He retreated.In addition to arranging [-] soldiers and horses to go to the expedition, it is more important to select confidantes and generals to lead the troops to wait in Bianliang.The matter of taking King Jing and his wife from Bianliang in private is expensive and not expensive, and the Cao family has many old subordinates, so it can only be entrusted to someone who can be trusted.

Seeing Cao Xi gently close the door, the light in the room dimmed again, Cao Di looked solemn, he gently took out a piece of letter paper from under the desk, and opened it to have a look.The sky outside was dark, and a gust of cold wind blew a few dead grasses from the window into the charcoal stove in the room, burning them suddenly, lighting up the room, and then extinguishing it, leaving only the red light of the burning charcoal fire.

In Xiangyang city, Liu Yanqing has locked himself in the study for several days in the southeast camp commander's mansion.In the early hours of the morning, he came out to receive the gold medal edict from the capital, and locked himself up before the generals could discuss matters.Most of the generals in the southeast camp were from Henan and Hebei. Hearing that the Liao army had entered the bandits and Bianliang was shaking, they were all agitated. In the past few days, there was an endless stream of people going to the capital deployment mansion to inquire about the news of the dispatch of troops, but Liu Yanqing was Not at all.

It was not yet dawn, the outside was pitch black, there was no one else in the room, there was a gold medal in the middle of the table, it was just received on the side that the capital used to urge reinforcements.Under the illumination of the lights, the gilt plate reflected dazzling light, and the four characters of "Imperial Front" and "Qing Ming" seemed to jump out of the sign, which was majestic.

"Alas—" Liu Yanqing sighed. Since Hebei was defeated ten years ago, he was already quite timid about the strength of Liao's cavalry, and he had other thoughts, so he didn't immediately send troops to the north.According to his original intention, Henan and Hebei have no danger to defend, and it is best for the Holy One to move to Xiangyang to be safe.However, after the gold medal was ordered, there was no longer any delay.

After meditating for a long time, Liu Yanqing finally stood up, and said to the soldiers standing outside the door: "Generals of the Xingying Battalion, Baihutang will call."