"Senior Brother Zhao, we have all arrived in Chenzhou. Why did General Zhou gather us together? It seems that there is something bad about his face?" Zhao Yan just got on the flagship, and immediately a captain younger than him came over and said, "The captain is named Lin Hao, and he is also a graduate of the Navy Academy. He was only one lower than Zhao Jia. He entered the navy last year and is now the captain of a medium-sized warship, one level lower than Zhao Jia. In addition, there are not many generals like him in the navy who graduated from military academy. For example, in the Seventh Fleet, Zhao Jia has the highest level, so Lin Hao and other academic schools are also headed by Zhao Jia.

"It should be something happened in the Liao Kingdom. Look, General Zhou not only has officials from the Liao Kingdom, but also a Song Dynasty official who we have never met before. It is estimated that the other party is a supervisory official who is left in Chenzhou. There must be something going on when we come to find our general this time." Zhao Jia looked at General Zhou and spoke. As soon as he got on the flagship and entered the conference room, he noticed that there were two more people around General Zhou and guessed something from them.

Sure enough, just as Zhao Jia finished speaking, General Zhou, who had a gloomy face, introduced to them: "Dear Captains, the Liao official Xiao Zhizhou of Chenzhou Port, and this is Cai Gouba from our Song Dynasty, who is responsible for supervising the commissioning of materials. This time they came to see me, and there was an important matter to discuss with me."

When he said this, General Zhou glanced at everyone, especially stayed on Zhao Jia for a while. In the entire squadron, only he knew Zhao Jia’s true identity. He was the general promoted by Zhao Yan in the Navy. Naturally, there was no need to say about loyalty, so after Zhao Jia was assigned to the Navy, he had been working under him.

After General Zhou glanced at everyone, he slowly spoke: "Just three days ago, the Jurchens suddenly broke out along the Yalu River and sneaked into Kaizhou City, an important town on the Liaodong Peninsula of Liao, and now he has siegeed Kaizhou City. It can be said that the situation is very critical and may be broken by the Jurchens at any time."

"General. What does the situation in Kaizhou City have to do with us?" At this moment, a middle-aged captain with a big beard and short stature asked loudly. The middle-aged captain's surname was Wang, and he was the Captain Wang mentioned by Zhao Jia before. He used to be the most capable captain under General Zhou, but later after Zhao Jia arrived, he could only surrender second.

"This sentence is a good question. Originally, the war between the Liao Kingdom and the Jurchens was not our business. According to the alliance between our Song Dynasty and the Liao Kingdom, our Song Dynasty only needed to provide supplies to support the Liao Kingdom and would not send troops directly. However, the situation was special this time, because just a while ago, the Liao Kingdom's crown prince Yelu Yanxi came to inspect Liaoyang Prefecture in Tokyo and happened to go to Kaizhou City four days ago. As a result, the Jurchens sneaked into Kaizhou City three days ago, and now they besieged the Liao Kingdom's crown prince in the city. The situation is very critical. Xiao Zhizhou can't mobilize many troops to rescue him, so I hope we can help this and send troops to rescue the Liao Kingdom's crown prince." General Zhou spoke again at this time.

Originally, the life or death of the prince of the Liao Kingdom was not related to the Song Dynasty. But at the level of General Zhou, he could already know some general directions. For example, he knew that the Liao Kingdom must not fall now, otherwise the Jurchens would take the opportunity to become bigger. Compared with the declining Khitans, the extremely barbaric Jurchens pose a greater threat to the Song Dynasty. Therefore, after knowing that the prince of the Liao Kingdom was besieged by the Jurchens, General Zhou hurriedly summoned his subordinates to discuss matters.

Zhao Jia was also shocked when he heard this. Naturally, for example, anyone knew the threat of the Jurchens to the Song Dynasty. He also knew that the Liao Kingdom was far weaker than it seemed. It took three years to deal with a small Wanyan tribe but not much effect. From this we can see how incompetent the Liao Kingdom was. If the prince of the Liao Kingdom was also captured by the Jurchens, it would cause a huge blow to the Liao Kingdom and might even become the fuse for the Liao Kingdom's demise.

Thinking of the above, Zhao Jia immediately decided to rescue Yelu Yanxi no matter what, but he was not impulsive, but looked at other people calmly. After all, General Zhou might not make a decision on such a big thing, and at least he needed the support of most people to make a decision.

"I agree that in the Jurchens, the Liao Kingdom is our ally anyway. Now the important figures among the allies are in trouble, which may change the current situation, so I think we should send troops." At this time, the young Lin Hao was the first to speak. The young people are impulsive, and the reason is very simple. After all, in his opinion, the two words "allies" alone have enough reasons to send troops.

"I don't think it's right. The alliance signed by our Song Dynasty and Liao Kingdom only provided material support and did not mention sending troops. If we send troops now, it would have been considered to have destroyed the original alliance, which might have caused very serious consequences, so I do not agree with sending troops." At this time, the bearded Captain Wang stood up and said, "Although he looked rude, he was actually a cautious person and acted cautiously. Of course, this is also related to his age.

Lin Hao and Captain Wang expressed their opinions, and the other captains also expressed their opinions one after another. Some people supported Lin Hao, while others supported Captain Wang, but the number of people on both sides was almost the same, and no one could convince anyone. This made the conference room quarreled for a while and there was no unified opinion at all.

Seeing this situation, the Liao Dynasty's Magistrate Xiao couldn't help but feel a little panicked. Speaking of which, he was the queen's cousin, Yelu Yanxi's cousin, and he was a firm prince's sect. Naturally, he was unwilling to let something happen to Yelu Yanxi, so he said anxiously: "Dear generals, please listen to the officials. Although there was no requirement for the Song Dynasty to send troops when our Song and Liaoning countries formed an alliance, the situation is special. Our Liao Dynasty's prince is trapped in Kaizhou City. It will take at least five or six days for reinforcements to arrive. Moreover, we may encounter ambush from the Jurchens on the way. Maybe when the reinforcements arrive, Kaizhou City will be destroyed. So now only the generals can save our Liao Dynasty's prince."

When Xiao Zhizhou spoke at the end, he squeezed out two tears, and then saluted General Zhou and Zhao Jia very solemnly. This made the captain who had previously opposed sending troops a little embarrassed.

General Zhou actually agreed to send troops, but the responsibility was too great. If there were any serious consequences in the future, I am afraid he could not bear it alone, so he wanted to get the support of his subordinates, but he didn't expect that he would disagree. However, at this time, he suddenly saw Zhao Jia silent in the crowd. His eyes lit up and said with a smile: "Captain Zhao, I see that everyone else has expressed their opinions, but you didn't speak from beginning to end. I wonder what you think about this matter?"

When Zhao Jia saw General Zhou taking the initiative to ask for his opinion, and there was a kind smile on his face, he couldn't help but feel amused. He could also guess what the other party thought was, but he was just afraid that he would not be able to take on the responsibility, so he wanted him to stand up. Even if something went wrong in the future, with Zhao Jia's identity, he might not do anything to them.

Although he knew General Zhou’s thoughts, Zhao Jia also agreed to send troops very much, so he hesitated for a moment and finally spoke slowly: "Report to General, just as Captain Lin said before, we are allies in any case, and the prince of Liao is an important figure of both countries. Now we are in danger. It would be fine if we didn’t know about it before. If we knew about this, we watched the other party fall into the hands of the Jurchens, this would probably affect the diplomatic relations between the two countries, so the last general also believed that we should send troops."

Hearing Zhao Jia's words, General Zhou immediately looked calm and glanced at the captains under his command and said, "I also think Captain Lin and Captain Zhao are right. It would be fine if I didn't know it before. Now that I know, I naturally can't watch the prince of Liao in danger, so I also feel that I should send troops."

Although some captains expressed their opposition to General Zhou's statement, they were unable to make up for the situation. After all, there were quite a few captains who supported the dispatch of troops before, so the matter was settled in the end, which also made the Magistrate Xiao cry. After thanking General Zhou and the others again, he then asked someone to bring the map to explain to them the terrain of Kaizhou and the current situation there.

Kaizhou and Chenzhou are located at both ends of the entrance to the Liaodong Peninsula, guarding the Liaodong Peninsula like two portals. Moreover, Kaizhou is located at the entrance of the Yalu River. It can be said that it is more suitable for a port than Chenzhou. However, Kaizhou is farther from Liaoyang Prefecture, and there are some mountains in the middle of the two cities, which is inconvenient to transport food and food, so the Liao Kingdom did not choose the port there.

Another thing to note is that Kaizhou is not only the gateway to the Liaodong Peninsula, but also the border between the Liao Kingdom and Goryeo, so the Kaizhou City has more troops than Chenzhou, and its military value is also higher. It is precisely because of this that Yelu Yanxi went to Kaizhou to inspect, but he did not expect that as soon as he arrived there, he encountered a surprise attack from the Jurchens. This almost made Zhao Jia and the others sure that Yelu Yanxi must have a Jurchen spy, otherwise he would not have been surrounded by the Jurchens so by chance.

There are about 5,000 Liao troops in Kaizhou City, and there are only more than 3,000 Jurchens outside the city. However, even if the Jurchens' military strength is not as good as the Liao army, the combat power of the two sides is very different. The 5,000 Liao army was killed by the 3,000 Jurchens and could only rely on the city wall to defend. Next, the Jurchens did not attack Kaizhou City, which was likely to want to surround and attack the reinforcements, which made the Liao reinforcements hesitate and dare not go to rescue easily.
Chapter completed!