In late autumn, the leaves of Hebei land rust down. The villages and villages that were plundered and destroyed in the war have not been repaired and even more depressed.

The rivers have not been frozen yet, but the rainfall has decreased after autumn. They gathered from the Taihang Mountains, and rivers flowing eastward into the Bohai Sea are flowing freely on the earth.

Because the central and northern Hebei region has long been regarded as a buffer zone confronting the Khitan.

The imperial court never remediates the rivers flowing through this area on a large scale, causing the embankment to collapse and the river water to flow freely into shallow silt land.

Without the constraints of dams, rivers on the land of Hebei are both wide and shallow, with swamps everywhere, and shallow beaches that are easy to ride by horses everywhere.

As long as you understand the terrain, even if there is no ice, it will no longer pose an obstacle to the cavalry.

Hundreds of cavalrymen, as if a turbid torrent passed through shallow beaches, moved from north to south.

""The people in the broken village were trembling as they watched this scene, their throats seemed to be tightly grasped by invisible giant hands, and they screamed in fear.

It took only four or five months for thousands of enemy soldiers to retreat north through this place, and they went south again so quickly?!

Weizhou also deployed a large number of scouts and detectives in this area. When they saw this scene, they rushed south, passed through villages along the way, and blew horns to warn them.

"I'm eating this kind of dog food again! I might as well be a bandit!"

In the camp of Fuyang, a stinger with a scar on his face looked at half a bowl of black sorghum rice in his hand. He didn't know what wild vegetables and weeds were mixed with and cooked them together. He slapped half a spoonful of salty sauce to accompany him, but he squatted on the ground and dug some into his mouth. It was dry and astringent. He couldn't swallow it for a long time. Seeing the military officer watching the side staring at him, his heart was furious and smashed the broken pottery bowl to the ground and shouted,

"What kind of dog thing? Your eyes are like pigs. This is also dog food. You dog things hide and eat delicious food. You can catch me and behead me!"

The military officers were angry and cursed to come forward to arrest people. The soldiers on both sides had long been resentful of the lack of clothes and food for months. More than a dozen people stood up and stood in front of several military officers. They did not ask them to arrest people. The others started to clamor and shouted, "Why are you fighting while eating dog food? I'm better if I don't rebel, I'm going to catch us together and behead us, and use this bullshit to fool people all day long, so why don't you let me yell?"

During the camp in Fuyang, the soldiers were stationed in the capital team and eighty or ninety soldiers were clamoring together in the huge yard, which was a frightening momentum.

Some people even went to get knives with bad eyes.

Several military officers from the Military Supervisory Academy were frightened and did not dare to catch the first soldier who complained.

There have been some days when military rations are short, and the generals can only eat half full every day, and they don’t even have the energy to train. They don’t know how much resentment they have accumulated. Most of them are from bandits and are naughty by nature. At this time, some people take the lead in getting impatient, so how could they easily calm them down?

Some people scolded the ruthless deduction of food and wages. The fire-headed soldiers and the military officers of the Military Supervisory Academy were all full of oil and fat heads, and shouted that they would go to the military marquis to reason with them.

Han Shiliang heard the movement and walked into the courtyard of the camp without ordering the quarrels to suppress the quarrels. He walked to the rice jar that was overthrown by the quarrels of the troubled soldiers with a gloomy face. He looked at the sorghum rice that had been scattered all over the floor, closed his eyes for a while, let out a light breath, squatted to the ground, picked up a broken pottery bowl, filled a bowl with sand, and squatted in front of the straw shed and swallowed it in big mouthfuls.

The soldiers around him watched Han Shiliang quickly finish a bowl of black and crude high-grain rice, and stopped talking.

Han Shiliang didn't say anything, put the empty bowl in the mud, patted his butt, and walked out of the courtyard, leaving the next thing to the military officer to deal with.

"There is so shortage of food and fodder, and the money and salary are still incurred for several months. Not only are there people robbed the countryside, but Guantao has fled the two battalions, and there are many people making trouble everywhere. If Wuyang continues to drag on it, there will probably be trouble. At that time, let alone resisting the barbarians, self-protection will become a problem!" A scholar followed Han Shiliang and said with concern.

"Why send someone to see Your Highness again? This food is really not enough. Use the iron money to find a village to buy it. If there are fewer people, even the gate of the village cannot be opened," a general followed closely and said, "There are too many people. Although there is a deterrence, if there are a little more food, these people will really dare to fight for us!"

Han Shiliang sighed without saying a word.

What can he say?

He had never been in war, and he had some days to tighten his belt, and Weizhou was also short of food. Every time the King of Lu sent envoys to Qizhou (Jinan), Qingzhou and other places to supervise grain, he could only squeeze 10,000 or 20,000 s of grain. However, after the entire Weizhou accepted the troops retreating from Dingzhou and Xiongzhou, the total force exceeded 100,000, and 10,000 or 20,000 s of grain were only enough to support a few days.

"This battle cannot be fought. You should ask Your Highness to send us to Qizhou as soon as possible, and Qingzhou will receive food," said the scholar.

"" Several fast horses rode towards the city of Fuyang, and the horse's hooves stepped on the stone. The sound of stepping on the stone street was "clicking", and you could hear it clearly two or three miles apart.

"The person who came to the city was so urgent. Maybe something happened?" said the scribe in uncertain doubt, "Let's go back to the army yamen!"

Han Shiliang led his entourage out of the camp. On the way to the military yamen, the scout cavalry who reported the news also followed him. Without having time to take a breath, he turned over and dismounted and said: "In the early morning, I found a large number of enemies in Wuyi North, and the scale was less than 5,000 riders. He rode his horse very fast and he might enter Weizhou tomorrow!"

"It's really here, the Chihu people are so cruel!" The scholar stood beside Han Shiliang, took a breath, and looked northeast, but he could see nothing except the rammed earth wall and the leisurely clearing of the sky.

On the north slope of the plum blossom peak on Danzhuling, the north wind blew, and there was a bit of coldness that was boring when the north wind blew, and scattered snow particles floated down in the hazy sky.

"The secret spies had spyed Chihu cavalry to go south on a large scale the day before yesterday, and would enter Weizhou tomorrow at the latest. The troops in Weizhou in Fuyang and other places may shrink south in advance - the elite vanguards of Chihu Western Route Army may cross Luzhou at any time."

Zhao Fan was weak and had already put on a fur coat outside his jacket. He looked at the undulating mountains under the hazy sky and advised Zheng Huaizhong to say that

"We cannot delay. The soldiers are short of clothes and food, and they complain. I am afraid they will be defeated without waiting for the battle. Before tomorrow, we will withdraw all the troops in the north of Danzhuling. If we are too late, we will be afraid that it will be too late. As long as Xu Huai can send troops from the prefectures to attack Taiyuan, no matter whether it succeeds or not, no one in the world will criticize you, Duke Zheng and King Jing."

"I think it's because of this, I might mention the matter of the Chihu people," said the middle-aged man standing on Zheng Huaizhong's left hand sinisterly, "This Xu Huaixiao is hard to control, but he has a natural attitude and a ghost-god plot. In the future, it will probably hinder Mr. Zheng from doing things in front of King Jing."

Zhao Fan remained silent and looked at Zheng Huaizhong.

Zheng Huaizhong frowned and said after a while: "The Chihu people are so powerful. There must be a few powerful generals who charge in the battle to stop their sharp edges. Some things should not be urgent!"

"Mr. Zheng is wise," the man did not persuade him when he saw Zheng Huaizhong make a decision, and said, "Mr. Zheng should arrange for the withdrawal of troops early."

Baijingzhai on the east side of Guangyang County, Taiyuan, and Xitianmen Pass, about five or six miles away from the east, are the western gateway of Jingxing across the Taihang Mountains.

The eight Xings of Taihang Mountains and Jingxing are ranked fifth, mainly following the valleys of Taohe-yehe River and tributaries that cross the Taihang Mountains from west to east, as well as the Baihe-Xiao River Valley that flows into the Taiyuan Basin in the west.

The eight passes of Taihang Mountain and Jingxing are the most prominent, and they are also the only passageway for horse-drawn carriages to pass through the eight passes of Taihang Mountain.

Historical records show that "the current Jingxing road is not allowed to be square tracks, and the riders are not allowed to be arranged." This shows that the Jingxing road was already available in the Qin Dynasty and the early Western Han Dynasty, but by the middle of the Western Han Dynasty, the road became rugged again due to disrepair.

Since the founding of the Great Yue Dynasty, Jingxing has been repaired more frequently, making it a core post road connecting Hedong and central Hebei.

The western section of Jingxing belongs to Guangyang and other cities under the jurisdiction of Taiyuan Prefecture, including Baijingzhai, the gateway to the west of Jingxing, and Xitianmen Pass, which were already occupied by the Chihu people and surrendered troops.

In the cold wind, Yue Hailou was wearing armor, and thousands of generals stood behind him.

The main force of the Eastern Route Army has moved south from Dingzhou and Xiongzhou in sequence. He will also lead a group of troops to advance east through Jingxing, and cooperate with a group of the Eastern Route Army to attack Zhenzhou at the east entrance of Jingxing.

Jingxing is communicating with Hedong and Hebei, and the importance of the two places is too prominent. Jingxing can be opened to traffic and horses, which can be used for large-scale rapid passage of cavalry troops to seize the cities along Jingxing. After the pass, the main force of the Western Route Army can even leave Luzhou in the south and Zezhou is ignored. The main force of the cavalry directly takes three or four days from Jingxing and directly meets the main force of the Western Route Army in central Hebei and heads south.

Yuehailou doesn’t have to worry about how troublesome it will be to take over Zhenzhou.

After all, in the past year, in addition to besieging Zhenzhou City for more than half a year, they also sent more troops to harass their side during the other period and completely destroyed their farming production.

Thousands of defenders and tens of thousands of people in Zhenzhou had few grains of food left. The soldiers were weak and exhausted. The generals and officials in the city were distracted. Some even secretly threw letters to the city and intended to offer them to the city.

In addition, after a year of raising and operating the Eastern Route Army in Youji, it has built a lot of combat equipment that can be dragged into the battlefield in Zhenzhou nearby. Yue Hailou did not think it would take much effort to capture Zhenzhou.

Yue Hailou sat on the horse's back, but couldn't help looking back and looking into the direction of Taiyuan City.

He never expected that Taiyuan City, which had already run out of food, would still hold on stubbornly, so that the main force of the Western Route Army had to temporarily leave Taiyuan City and head south.

Although the military and civilians in Taiyuan City, which were hungry and cold, did not seem to have the ability to go out of the city to fight back, in eleven months, the surrendered troops suffered losses of nearly 30,000 people, but they failed to capture Taiyuan City. The unstolen Taiyuan City was like a poisonous sting in his heart, making Yue Hailou worry about what would happen!
Chapter completed!