When I left Qingzhong, the sun was high and it was still early before dark.

After walking ten miles away, Tan Hu breathed a sigh of relief: "Thank God, now it's safe!"

Xu Ping said: "What, are you afraid that we will fight and fight in the tent?"

"Now the army is confronting each other, and the two countries are at a strife. Who knows what will happen? There are only four people in the tent, and the lord and the lord are both civil officials. If that person has sex for a while, he will be afraid of losing his fight!"

Xu Ping laughed: "I have been in command of the army shortly after I became an official. I can bend the bow and hold the spear in the siege. Yelu Ren may not be able to do anything to me if he wants to do it first! And that scholar Liu is definitely not as good as Zhenglu Fan!"

Fan Zhongyan laughed together and finally said, "But there are still some worries in the military tent just now. The Khitan is not good now. Who knows if the troops will be on the risk, hide some dead soldiers in the army and take our lives. But the Protector is right. We are the generals of the imperial court. If we don't even dare to go to such a place, wouldn't it be so embarrassing!"

Xu Ping smiled and did not answer. Fan Zhongyan's worries were not wrong, but they were just worried. In fact, it was far from that dangerous. The Khitan was established many years earlier than the Song Dynasty. It was already a normal empire, not a northern nomadic tribe style. How could a normal country take risks during such negotiations? For the person in charge, if there is no need to say, it is likely that he will die on the spot. Even if he wins and loses the face of the empire, there will be no good results. Those who participated in the negotiations on both sides are good at having high positions and power, but after all, they are ministers. What's the use of killing them on the spot? It's just to make the situation worse and cannot change the result. This time, the leadership of the troops was only at the ceremony, and no party would take the initiative to use force on this occasion.

After walking for a while, Tan Hu completely relieved and asked curiously: "The Protector and the Master talked with the two men for several hours, and finally had to fight. Since we were going to fight, why bother to do this? Just line up and fight!"

"You don't have to do this. There are many ways to fight in war, and you have to make a name for yourself. Even if you are just the ruffian on the street, you must explain before the battle. Today, you must stop or die. When the two major powers face off, you must make the words even more clear. If you don't explain it clearly, how dare the Khitans start a war easily! At the time, the Khitans had the upper hand at the city of Chanzhou, but they still lost their troops and had to retreat. Now in Fengzhou, if they have the same style of fighting, what do you think the final result will be?"

Tan Hu nodded, understanding a little, but not understanding a little. This negotiation is actually determined not whether to fight or not, but how to fight. Before fighting, we first draw a range of recognition from both sides. Just like a street hooligan fighting, we should talk about the best, not a life-and-death battle that will never end. After the battle, according to the final result, the two sides will draw territories to negotiate conditions. Too unpleasant, it is quite similar to street gangsters grabbing territories. The truth is the same, but the content is different.

After thinking for a while, Tan Hu asked again: "Since this dynasty has the upper hand, why don't the Protector directly command the army, and then advance eastward after capturing Fengzhou, seize the two states of Yun and Shuo? If it goes well, it may not be possible to take Youzhou back together!"

Xu Ping smiled and shook his head: "How can it be that simple! If you can do that, you will still wait for the Khitan king here. I will command the army to Yunzhou to wait for him! Fighting the Khitan in Fengzhou, they can send an army of 300,000 at most. When they arrive in Yunzhou, the number will be doubled, and it is not certain that it will be more than one million. We have the upper hand now, and we will go through three hundred miles and then we will be gone!"

Three or five hundred miles of mountain road is enough for the army to make the host and guest more stable. When attacking the city of Yunzhou, the supply line of the Song army was lengthened, the supply line of the Khitan was shortened, and the advantages were reached to the opponent. If not, the defense often used the enemy to lure the enemy deeper, wouldn't it be useless to waste your energy? When we arrived in Yunzhou, not only did the two sides exchange advantages of the supply line, but the mobilization ability of the Khitan was greatly enhanced. Several states behind the mountain and the forces of the northern tribes could be mobilized, and Youzhou could support it nearby, and it was not an exaggeration to turn 300,000 into one million.

The foundation of a country cannot be underestimated. Khitan is not comparable to Dangxiang. If Dangxiang loses its elite and the whole country collapses, this will not happen to the Khitan. Not to mention Fengzhou, even if the Sixteen Prefectures of Yanyun is captured, the Khitan can still hold on.

The final result was that Xu Ping, who was unable to attack Yunzhou, was unable to catch up, and went to Fengzhou to fight the Khitans. He could only make a gesture, click and end, and get a result that both sides could accept.

Back in Yunneizhou, Xu Ping recruited Zhang Kang and Wang Kai to discuss the next battle with Fan Zhongyan.

Standing in front of the map, Wang Kai pointed to the troops of both sides and said, "According to the Beishi, the Khitan came to Fengzhou to compete for land, and it was very likely that the troops were divided into two groups. One way to Dezhou threaten Zhenwu County, and the other way to Fengzhou along the ninety-nine springs to capture our Yunneizhou. The central army may be stationed in Baishuilu and responded in the middle. Therefore, the troops from the Khitan should be worth 200,000."

Xu Ping asked Fan Zhongyan beside him: "The wise man, how will the Khitans arrange it?"

"It should be divided into two groups, but it will be a weak one, a solid one. The virtual one defends one and a solid one attack."

Xu Ping nodded: "Zhenwu's dangerous city is just at the mouth of the mountains, and it is easy to defend and difficult to attack. A few days ago, General Cao occupied various mountain passes and established a city wall. It was already as solid as a god. It was extremely difficult for the Khitan army to come from there. Therefore, in this battle, the Khitan should have a large army to Fengzhou to attack our Yunneizhou. The military supervisor said it was right, and it should be 200,000."

Zhang Kang said: "I think like the Protector. The Khitan should have divided tens of thousands of troops to defend Dezhou to prevent his retreat from Zhenwu County of our army. The main force passed by ninety-nine springs and went to Fengzhou to compete for Yunneizhou. The Khitan king was very likely to be able to station 100,000 troops in Baishui and support him. No matter which accident occurs, the overall situation will not be lost."

The route to Dezhou to attack Zhenwu County was short and easy to walk, but the exit was blocked by the Song army, and the Khitan would not go. Hundreds of thousands of troops were stopped under the strong city. Yelu Zongzhen would not make such arrangements unless he was crazy. It was even more impossible to circumvent the small path between the mountains from this direction, and the rear path would be cut off by Cao Keming at any time. This was a move by Tai Ah.

There was actually only one choice for Khitan, who defended the Dezhou direction with a small amount of troops. The main force went from the north to Fengzhou and fought against the Song army east of Fengzhou. If he won, he would advance to Yunneizhou and Dongshengzhou, and if he lost, he would retreat to Fengzhou.

Xu Ping stood up, stood in front of the map for a while, and said, "The Khitan Master Yelu Zongzhen was young and vigorous, so he might not be able to sit in Baishui. Judging from the success or failure of the front, it is not impossible for him to personally lead the army to Fengzhou. What we think is a mature and steadfast move, but the Khitans may not be so steady. Now they are at a disadvantage and cannot throw in the army on the front line and have no chance of victory. I guess that no matter whether the Khitan Master is not in Fengzhou, he will throw most of his troops into Fengzhou."

Speaking of this, Xu Ping pointed to the map and said, "Dezhou, the Khitan may only send 20,000 to 30,000 people to guard, and there will be no more. Baishuihe will leave at most 300,000 to 50,000 people, just keep the rear route. It is only 200 miles away from Yunzhou, and the Khitans in the Yunshuo two states will have a large army, so there will be no loss. Therefore, the Khitans from the Khitans to Fengzhou may be in the number of 300,000. If they continue to gather at these times, it is not impossible to finally reach nearly 400,000 people in Fengzhou. If this is the case, the Khitans will not be at a disadvantage in terms of military strength."

Facing the Song army in Fengzhou, there were three armies of Liu Jianji, Zhang Kang and Cao Keming, plus the central army commanded by Xu Ping, about 145 people. Together with the 120,000 Dangxiang people, a total of less than 300,000. If Cao Keming wanted to defend Zhenwu County, he could only distribute some of the troops to deal with the direction of Fengzhou. In terms of number of people, the Song army was at the bottom.

Of course, the Song army defended the city, and there were a large number of tribal soldiers in the Khitan army, and the real combat power was still the Song army.

After pondering for a long time, Xu Ping asked Wang Kai: "To the east of Fengzhou, all the way to the Dangxiang area, have the walls and clear the fields been completed?"

Wang Kai crossed his hands: "Returning to the capital, all of them have been completed. There are no nomadic tribes or farming families for hundreds of miles. All livestock and food have been received into the city."

Xu Ping nodded: "This is the best. Even if there are Khitan Rangers breaking through Yunneizhou, there is nowhere to go. It's just that sheep enter the tiger's mouth. He ordered Zhejimin's army to leave Dongshengzhou and station in our newly built city opposite the river here. He would like to station more troops in the middle road. Fan Zhengluo, you ordered your subordinates to advance north, station in Dongshengzhou, Yulin, and Binhe counties. Stick to the city and stay in the door and stay away. One defense of the Khitan Rangers coming west, and the other defense of the Dangxiang people not obeying the command."

Fan Zhongyan promised that in this way, the forces of the two sides on the front line were almost the same. The Song army had a greater advantage between offense and defense. In the past two months, the Song army built many cities, almost completely sealing the entire valley nearly a hundred miles wide. The Khitans wanted to attack, and the first thing they bumped into was the fortifications that were dozens of miles long.

This kind of large-scale military civil engineering operation was not unusual during the Qin and Han dynasties, namely, cities and walls, artificially formed a huge defense system in the plains. However, it became less and less, and by this era, it was almost impossible to see it. The mainstream was camps and antlers. Correspondingly, wars that had been confronted for several years or even 10 or 20 years were rare, and most wars were quick to decide.

After hundreds of thousands of troops had nothing to do in two months, Xu Ping picked up this tradition and formed a huge defense system connected to the city walls with Yunneizhou as the center. The Khitans were better at siege than the Dangxiang people, but they were not much stronger. Xu Ping could hardly imagine how they broke through the city walls that cost dozens of miles. There were many artillery installed on these city walls.
Chapter completed!