Since Empress Dowager Xiao implemented Xiao Gan's delayed military strategy and won Xiao Gan for ten days, Xiao Gan has been desperately training the 20,000 Khitan soldiers he just recruited these days.

The Khitans are no longer the soldiers of the people a hundred years ago. Any herder can take a knife to fight. There is no difference between the Khitans and the Han people. Without military training, they are just weak and plain-headed civilians.

Twenty thousand soldiers wearing armor and helmets stood in line on the school ground holding spears in their hands, listening to the final lectures of the general. Their concentrated training was over and they were about to go to the battlefield. Everyone's hearts were ups and downs, and their hearts were filled with expectations for a war.

"The Song people will never spare us Khitans!"

Xiao Gan shouted hoarsely: "Look at Yixian, you will know that after the Song army entered the city, all the Khitan men were killed, women became camp prostitutes and were humiliated, and children were sold as slaves. If we did not rise up to resist, our mothers, wives, daughters and sisters would encounter the same fate. We are fighting to defend our families, and our destiny is in our own hands. On the battlefield, we would rather die to the last person than surrender to the enemy!"

Twenty thousand soldiers were filled with blood and raised their spear and shouted angrily: "Don't surrender!"

"Never give in!"

Xiao Gan pulled out the sword to fight and said, "It's time to set off. Let's go to the military camp outside the city to prepare for war!"

Xiao Gan turned over and led 20,000 soldiers to drive out of the city.

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After Guo Yaoshi surrendered, the Liao Kingdom had only 50,000 troops left, of which 5,000 guarded Juyongguan, 5,000 guarded Lulong, and another 40,000 troops were stationed in the capital.

Now that 20,000 new troops have been recruited, their strength has reached 60,000, of which 10,000 were led by general Xiao Fengxian and left behind in Yanjing. 20,000 were handed over to Yelu Dashi to fight Tong Guan's army, and the other 30,000 were led by Xiao Gan, preparing to go south to fight Zhong Shidao.

At this time, Zhong Shidao was not idle. He also received the emperor's order and suspended the northern attack during the negotiations. He also used this short time to continue to integrate 30,000 Jingdong Xiangjun. Thanks to these few days, he finally completed the integration of Jingdong Road Xiangjun.

There is a forest covering an area of ​​about 20 acres in the south of Fanyang County. This forest is actually mysterious. However, the two rows of trees on the outside have all been cut down and turned into a flat land. This place has become the firearm test site for the Eastern Route Army.

There were guard posts all around the woods, and no one was allowed to approach.

At this time, in the woods, Zhong Shidao looked at Li Yanqing with a focused look at him, opening an iron box, and taking out a dark firearm with a shape that looks quite like a small eight-edged purple gold hammer. "Is this the iron fire thunder?" Zhong Shidao asked.

Li Yanqing nodded, "In fact, it is a shrinking thunder. The handle is below, weighing about three kilograms. A strong person can throw it out thirty steps away."

Hearing that it was a shrinking thunder, Master Zhong suddenly became very interested. He picked up one casually, weighed it and smiled, "I can throw it about thirty steps away, let me give it a try!"

Li Yanqing immediately gave Ambassador Chen next to him a wink. Chen Da was determined and immediately tied a goat wrapped in iron armor on a tree stump. Zhong Shidao was a little stunned and immediately understood that although he had experienced many battles, he was not a person who killed life at will. However, this kind of firearm test does require a test with a living mouth. For example, Xixia might also use slaves to test it. Zhong Shidao stopped saying anything more? Then he asked with a smile: "How should I use this iron fire thunder?"

"First unscrew the cover under the handle!"

Li Yanqing pointed to the wooden lid under the handle, and Chen Da and Chen Er made new improvements to the fuse. It turned out to be a semicircular lid. The fuse was wrapped in the lid, but the lid was easily knocked off accidentally. So Chen Da and Chen Er thought about hollowing out the handle for a short time without affecting the use. In this way, the fuse was wrapped in the handle, and a tooth-shaped wooden lid on the edge was placed outside, firmly holding the wooden handle, and it needed a little force to twist it off. This design made Li Yanqing very grateful. He also realized from this that only a real firearm craftsman was the key figure in promoting the development of firearms.

Master Zhong unscrewed the lid, and a small piece of fuse swung down, which made Master Zhong very grateful, "Okay! It's really exquisite."

Chen Da and Chen Er were proud of themselves and bowed to thank him together, "Thank you, Marshal for the praise!"

Master Zhong laughed and pulled out a fire snatch. When the ground was blown, the fire snatch suddenly started to burn. He lit the fuse casually. Li Yanqing hurriedly said, "The fuse can be thrown out when it reaches the wooden handle!"

Zhuang Shidao nodded, and when the fuse burned to the wooden handle, he swung hard, and the iron fire thunder drew an arc and threw it at the goat thirty steps away. Li Yanqing hurriedly pulled Zhuang Shidao and hid behind the big stone. For a moment, the explosion of "boom!" sounded. Although the sound was deafening, it was far inferior to the earth-shaking thunder.

After a moment, they stood up and saw white smoke in the distance, and the air was filled with pungent smell of gunpowder. Mr. Zhong asked, "How big is the range of killing?"

"Within a radius of thirty steps, iron sheets flew over our heads just now."

Zhong Shidao suddenly thought of something and asked quickly: "Will this hurt the soldiers who threw the iron fire thunder?"

Li Yanqing nodded, "This is its biggest flaw. If you throw the iron fire thunder out, people must lie on the ground to prevent being injured by the iron sheets it bursts."

Mr. Zhong pondered for a moment, "Then why can't it be controlled within twenty steps, such as putting less medicine."

"I'm afraid not. Chen Da and Chen Er have tried repeatedly. Even if the medicine is less than 1 point, the iron shell cannot be blown open. Originally, I wanted them to make one pound of iron fire thunder. Now three pounds are the limit. If the iron shell is thinner, the iron shell will have no lethality. They have tried it over and over for a whole year and can only do what they are doing now."

Zhong Shidao also knew that things were not as simple as he thought, so he smiled and said, "I think it's good to use it to defend the city, which just makes up for the defect of the power of the Sky-Sheng Thunder. An iron fire thunder can blow up a ladder, but I think it's easier to deal with the cavalry."

"The same is true for Bei Zhi."

Zhun Shidao raised his head and laughed. He quickly walked to the wooden stake. Chen Da had already taken off his iron armor. He saw that the goat was covered in blood. I don’t know how many iron pieces were shot into its body. Zhun Shidao praised it repeatedly and asked Li Yanqing, “How many iron fire thunder have you made now?”

"Reporting to the commander, he made about a thousand pieces in total. Beiyi specially established a firearm battalion of 300 people, each carrying three pieces, and there are fifty sky-shaking thunders, which are divided into field sky-shaking thunders and siege sky-shaking thunders, and there are conventional firearms, such as rockets and fire crows."

Zhong Shidao nodded secretly. Although there were firearms camps in the Song army, I am afraid that the entire Song Dynasty's firearms camp was not as powerful as Li Yanqing's firearms.

At this moment, a soldier rushed over from outside the forest and knelt down on one knee to report: "Report to the commander, the imperial edict is here!"

Mr. Zhong was shocked and didn't care about experimenting with the thunder again, so he rushed back to the camp. Li Yanqing asked Chen Da and Chen Er to clean up the venue and rushed back with Mr. Zhong.

The emperor Zhao Ji's handwriting was still half a day earlier than Tong Guan's expectation. Since it was not an imperial edict, but only a handwriting edict, Zhong Shidao did not place an incense table to receive the edict. After reading the edict, he immediately ordered his personal soldiers to invite several important officials to the big account to discuss. In addition to the three deputy commanders and Sima Liu Fu, Li Yanqing was also particularly favored by Zhong Shidao for making his first contribution and participated in the military affairs as a commander.

Zhong Shidao Yang raised the sage in his hand and said to everyone: "The Song Dynasty has ended negotiations with the Liao Kingdom. The Liao Kingdom decided to surrender to the Song Dynasty and give up the Sixteen Prefectures of Youyun. The emperor ordered us to go north and take back Yanjing immediately."

Zhang Shuye frowned, "It seems a bit wrong here! Now he has just reached an agreement with the Liao envoy. It has not been approved by Empress Dowager Xiao and the Liao court. How could Liao let me give Yanjing to us?"

Zhong Shizhong smiled and said, "Maybe the Liao Kingdom has put forward many conditions. As long as we unilaterally agree to these conditions and the Song Dynasty issued an order, there is no need to confirm it again. Besides, the Jin Kingdom is eyeing it, and the Liao Kingdom is also afraid that there will be more dreams in the night!"

The tent was silent for a moment, and Master Zhong also felt something was strange. He looked at everyone and found that Li Yanqing seemed to be thinking, and said, "Yanqing, you were the first to take Zhuozhou. You should know the situation the best and tell me your opinion!"

Li Yanqing stood up and saluted everyone, "I'm wondering if Tong Guan will receive the order at the same time as us?"

"What do you mean?"

While thinking, Li Yanqing said slowly: "This handwritten letter was sent from the capital at noon the day before yesterday. The distance between Yizhou and the capital was calculated. The handwritten letter given to Tong Guan should be half a day later than us. However, with Tong Guan's personality, he shouldn't wait until the handwritten letter arrives before knowing the inside story. I think he should have known the news yesterday. So would he send troops to Yanjing yesterday?"

Everyone knows that Tong Guan was eager to seize Yanjing first for the purpose of the Shenzong. At least several people in the tent knew it very well. Zhong Shidao didn't want to fight with him. Even if the Liao Kingdom really handed over Yanjing, Zhong Shidao would give Tong Guan the Yanjing Mansion first. At this time, Li Yanqing's speculation changed Zhong Shidao's face.

"You mean, there's something wrong with it?"

Li Yanqing nodded slowly, "I have a sense that this Song-Liao negotiation was a delaying strategy for the Liao Kingdom. I am afraid that the Liao Kingdom has prepared ambushes, and just wait for Tong Guan to step into the trap eagerly."

Everyone's faces changed drastically, and Li Yanqing's guess was completely possible. They all knew that Tong Guan was the biggest weakness of the Song army's northern expedition this time, and I'm afraid the Liao Kingdom had already seen this weakness.

Zong Ze said anxiously: "Then someone should be sent to inform Tong Guan immediately, and you should not make a rash move!"

Li Yanqing shook his head slightly, "If Tong Guan had sent troops yesterday, it would probably be too late."
Chapter completed!