"General An, please." Li Kechong said on his knees on the ground.

"General Li Shi, I have the troops in my hands. Or you go to Dingzhou. I heard that General Cao, General Mi, General Cui and others retreated to Dingzhou together. They have some troops in their hands. Moreover, the relationship between Cao Zhizhou (Cao Can) and Gong Song has always been good, so maybe he would promise you." An Zhong said.

Li Kechong immediately got on his horse and rushed towards Dingzhou. He ran from Qigou Pass to Xiongzhou. He encountered many ambushes on the way, and even clearly saw two ambushes, even ten companions came to Xiongzhou. Two were injured and five died heroically. Of course, this was expected, but he knew that the situation was serious.

Seeing that the three of them left, An Zhong shouted: "Where are you coming, send orders to let all the people on the border move to the rear, and the soldiers enter their respective forts and prepare for defense."

Song Jiu placed the contact point in Baigou Tun, which was only about thirty miles away from Xiongzhou.

Can An Zhong not be nervous?

Li Kechong and the other two rushed to Dingzhou. It was about to dawn. They forced themselves to open the city gate and broke in.

Cao Bin, Mi Xin, Cui Yanjin and others fled back together. Before Song Jiu stabilized the situation, countless soldiers and civilians had actually died. Those who were killed by the Liao army, those who drowned by the Juma River, and those who trampled on each other and died of humans and animals. For example, the right censor, Liu Baoxun, the future governor of Youzhou, followed the army to the front line. When he escaped, his horse fell into the swamp. His son Liu Lishe came back and rescued him but he was not rescued. As a result, the Liao army came up, and one sword was one, and both father and son were killed. The palace chief Kong Yi followed the army to protect the food. In desperation, he jumped into the Juma River, without knowing the nature of the water. The river was in the rainy season. The water flowed rapidly, and he also saw King Yama.

But most of the senior officials died were civil officials. The generals were very clever. Except for countless low-level generals who died, the senior generals either gathered around Song Jiu and fought desperately, or they all had their own ways to escape to Dingzhou City.

Hearing Li Kechong's report, Cao Bin said in embarrassment: "The Liao army is powerful, and we have brought out few soldiers and our morale is low. Where is the main force in Song Xianggong, how can we rescue him?"

"Duke Cao, you don't look at the face of Mr. Song. You also look at the face of tens of thousands of soldiers."

"My father, Mr. Song said that he would be able to pick him up in Baigou Tun, and he would be very close to Xiongzhou. If he could pick him up, he would be able to pick him up. If he couldn't pick him up, he could also withdraw to Xiongzhou in time. Just agree to him." Cao Can said.

"You guy is good, better than you. Do you dare? I have more than 3,000 soldiers and horses under me. Let's fight to Xiongzhou together." Cui Yanjin said.

When he was in Bashu, the kindness of Song Jiu's wife once made Cui Yanjin dissatisfied. Later, he made many military achievements in Hebei, and Song Jiu highly praised him in the court. He also often wrote letters to exchange the situation of Hebei's border defense. During the military reform, although the emperor abolished the rights of the governor, he relaxed many rights to the defense envoys and the regiment training envoys, giving many space for the generals on the border. So Cui Yanjin stopped caring about it, and even thought about what happened more than ten years ago. He was saying in his heart that this kid was a civil servant, what else could he say?

Cao Bin made many mistakes in command, and Song Jiu also tactfully pointed out that this point is consistent with Cui Yanjin's general opinion.

He also felt his face lost when he escaped. Maybe this trip would make up for his merits.

If it were Cao Bin, I would be too lazy to save him.

In fact, he found many reasons in his heart, but the real reason was to make up for the four words. After so many soldiers and civilians died, he was also one of the first commanders to escape, and the sky fell.

Furthermore, as Cao Can said, Baigou Tun is close to Xiongzhou, which gave him some courage.

Cao Bin couldn't say anything, and finally said, "Let's do this, select three thousand powerful soldiers from the army and go to help."

Li Kechong knelt down and said, "Thank you General Cao, thank you General Cao, thank you General Cui."

But from Dingzhou to Xiongzhou, from Xiongzhou to Baigoutun... can it be too late?

...

"Report, General Yang, the enemy army was divided into two, and some continued to travel to the northeast at night, and some set up camps in the valley road." The spy said.

"It's true that's not what I expected." Yang Ye said worriedly.

As the Liao army slowly moved to the northeast during the day, Yang Ye vaguely guessed the Liao Kingdom's plan.

It's easy to guess, it's a conspiracy.

However, the people of Liao were also afraid of Yang Ye, so some of them followed the Song Dynasty army and some of them set up camp on the valley road to prevent Yang Ye from helping him.

Yang Ye general Deng Wei and six or seven other generals called for discussion.

There are only two ways to go now. One is to listen to Song Jiu's orders, guard until tomorrow, and retreat safely. The other is to save.

There are two ways to rescue. One is to forcibly break through the Liao camp on the valley road, defeat the Liao army from behind, and then meet with the Song army.

The second method is to use the speed of the cavalry and go around in a circle, retreat from Jintaitun to Suicheng, and then advance from Suicheng along the Heiludi to Xiongzhou.

It was unexpected to Yang Ye, and almost all the generals agreed to the second plan.

"Don't worry."

"General Yang, do you learn from that person too? Don't forget that your son is also in the army?" Deng Wei was anxious.

"No, one of my sons has been killed in battle. Have you forgotten who your opponent is?" Yang Ye shouted. Deng Wei is not Wang, so he will not make Yang Ye lose his rationality.

But Yang Ye also felt that Deng Wei was very commendable and said seriously, so he said a little slower, "You want to save Mr. Song, but I want to save Mr. Song even more. In my life, the first person I thanked is Your Majesty, and the second person I thanked is Mr. Song. I am more anxious than you."

"Then why do you disagree?"

"It's not that I don't agree, the opponent is too cunning. Let's do this. Even if we save, we must be smarter. Don't fall into the enemy's tricks. First, I'll send orders to the three armies, rest well, and prepare to set off at dawn tomorrow."

"General Yang is wise, and Dawn is a good time to launch an attack."

"It's that simple, and it's so simple that it will be invincible. Send spies to investigate Qigou Pass, including the dense forests on both sides, and they have to reconnaise."

Dawn came unknowingly, and all kinds of spies came back to report. As Yang Ye expected, the troops who had divided the troops along the way did not leave, but were ambushed behind the valley road. The Liao army had many troops and many smart people, Yelu Xiu Ge, Han Derang, and Xiao Yanyan. How could it be that Yang Wudi was the oriole?

Yang Ye was no longer there. If there was no ambush, he would have been able to break through this camp and meet with Song Jiu. In fact, he would have put himself in a dangerous place. However, the army had almost no decent cavalry. Once he entered his pocket, how could he escape from heaven?

He thought for a long time until a red light flashed on the horizon, and then he forced a command: "The three armies set off and headed towards Suicheng, Heiludi."

...

The night is getting heavier and heavier.

In early summer, the grass on the roadside was covered with glittering dewdrops, emitting a faint crystal clearness, like the tears at the corners of the eyes of tens of thousands of Song soldiers.

The nightmare is coming again.

At that time, there were still many cavalrymen in the Song army, and Yelu Xiuge dared to come over to harass him all the time. Moreover, the number of cavalrymen in the Song army is almost less than 300 now. Even these 300 cavalrymen are still used as messengers or scouts.

The eastward, the flatter the terrain is.

The cavalry of the Liao Kingdom was like devils, shouting from time to time, coming to the Song army to shoot arrows, and then dodging to the rear.

There is no clever way to deal with it. The tens of thousands of troops had to stop from time to time, protect the shield soldiers, and the crossbow soldiers fought back with bows and arrows behind the shields.

This time, they did not bring much baggage, but the army was still crawling forward like a snail.

"This won't work. It's better to put the shield hand on the edge, followed by archers, and fight back while moving forward." Fan Yanzhao retreated from the front and found Song Jiu and said.

Nearly a thousand seriously injured people used a tragic self-destruction, giving most of the Song army a valuable opportunity to retreat. Everyone knew that there must be a terrible pocket ahead, but if the marching speed was slow and more Liao troops in the rear were surrounded, the entire army would be wiped out on this plain.

"Follow General Fan's opinion."

Convey one by one command.

However, the Liao army teams quickly joined forces to form squadrons, holding shields in their hands, and forcibly entered the Song army formation from time to time.

Song Jiu had to change his order again: "Telephone swordsmanship and axe driver on both sides."

The soldiers of the Song Dynasty were generally crossbowmen, spearmen, and fewer swordsmen, and even fewer people used axes. These axes were mainly used to cut mountains and make bridges across water. During the defensive battle for several days, the Liao army was occasionally allowed to break through the defense line and kill in.

So Song Jiu found some knives and axes from Qigou Pass City, equipped them into the hands of soldiers, and specifically chopped them on the horse's legs. It might not have been necessary to cut down many war horses, but some of them were trampled to death by horses, but it had some effect.

However, it is used here because the Liao cavalry has a larger space for movement and the effect is not significant.

It took me more than five hours to walk forty miles until the sky was bright. But it was much better than when I came, and I could only march a few miles a day.

Thanks to Cao Bin, who had no choice but to go along the way, and he dug many trenches on both sides of the road, which somewhat reduced the damage caused by Khitan harassment.

Hu Bixing looked behind him dissatisfiedly, saying, "Sir, why do you have to bring so many empty cars?"

Without these empty baggage trucks, the marching speed should be faster.

"What do you know?" Hu Yanzan cursed.

Now carrying thousands of baggage trucks and some ropes. Except for a few baggage trucks with arrows and a small amount of food, the rest are empty baggage trucks. They are dragging down speed, but at the critical moment, they may be used to save lives.

At this moment, Song Jiu ordered the generals to go to the back to discuss.

Several main generals came to the back, and Song Jiu said: "Let's rest on the spot, otherwise you will continue to walk, and your troops will be exhausted and your combat effectiveness will be weaker."

In fact, it is less than fifty miles from Baigou Tun, but it is also a long fifty miles away.

In terms of military capabilities, Song Jiu is definitely not as good as Yelu Xiu Ge. Even to this day, Song Jiu has only followed the crowd and has no control at all. To put it bluntly, he was almost led by Yelu Xiu Ge.

But there are basic military qualities, and even to put it bluntly, they may be a little more cleverer than Cao Bin.

If you continue, you will not be able to get to Jintaitun. On the contrary, the weather is hot during the day, and you are tired and thirsty, which is just right for the Liao Kingdom to beat the dogs. The terrain here is very good, and there is a pond behind you for drinking water. When the Song army came, they still rested here, and there were some broken camps.

There is no good idea for everyone. Once the rest is done, it means that the Liao army will catch up later.

But you can only rest.

The baggage truck was in handy at this time. Song Jiu asked the soldiers to tie them together with ropes, and simply repaired the original broken camp, and a more vulgar fortification was created.

The sun is rising higher and higher.

In the blink of an eye, it was the afternoon when the scout hurriedly came back to report that the Liao army was chasing him from behind.

I had to set off.

...

"That Yang Ye escaped?" Xiao Yanyan asked.

"He will not escape, probably retreat to Suicheng, and then go to Xiongzhou along the Heiludi to rescue him in front."

"This person could not fight in the Northern Han Dynasty, but by the Song Dynasty, he became able to fight." Han Dewei sarcastically.

"Han Qing, this person should not be underestimated," Xiao Yanyan turned to Yelu Xiuge and said, "But this person is not as good as you. Although he charges and is bravest in the three armies, he is equal to you, but he is invincible in command of the three armies, and this person is not as good as you."

Very fair evaluation.

If the two fight one-on-one, it is hard to say who is better. Even in the forced and tragic attack by Song Jiu at Qigou Pass, Yang Ye and did not fight with Yelu Xiuge. However, the tiger-beating hero Li Jixuan was defeated by Yelu Xiuge. He worked together with Yang Yanzhao and barely tied the draw, which shows his courage.

However, if on the battlefield, even in the era of cold weapons, command ability will definitely be more important than personal force. If the lame Chen Qingzhi and the extremely awesome Jing Si are asked to choose, who will they choose?
To be continued...