The Khitan Emperor summoned Zhao Dejun's envoy, pointed to a large stone in front of the tent, and said to him: "I have promised Shi Lang that the promise will change unless the stone rots!"

Yelu Deguang's decision, which seemed a bit impulsive, was actually the unexpected best choice for the Khitan. After Zhao Dejun led the army to Tuanbai Valley, he not only did not move forward, but also did not try to let Zhang Jingda, who was surrounded, know the news that the reinforcements were approaching. In this way, the two armies of the Later Tang army had no possibility of joint combat, and there was no possibility of attacking inside and outside.

Long Min, the Minister of Personnel, still refused to give up after he proposed the plan to support Li Zanhua. He said to Li Yi, a confidant general of Li Congke,: "As a royal relative, the country is about to fall. How can you be speechless?" Li Yi believed that the situation was not so serious. Zhao Dejun had already led the army to the front line and should be able to defeat the Khitan and save the crisis.

Long Min could only shake her head and said, "I am from Youzhou and know Zhao Dejun's background. He is just a timid coward, without any outstanding strategies. He is good at defending cities, building camps, and selling military morale. If he encounters a great enemy, it is definitely impossible to expect him to fight forever and charge into battle! Moreover, he is now at the top of the master, and he has two intentions, so he cannot count on him!"

Then, Long Min proposed a bold plan. He said: "Now there are 10,000 guards and 5,000 war horses in Huaizhou. If one thousand elite cavalry are selected from them, led by me, the governor of Chenzhou and the brave general Lang Wanjin, we will advance along the mountain roads in the Jiexiu area under the night. Take some risk to cross the blockade of the Khitan Rangers. As long as half of them rushed to Jin'an Village, they will succeed. Now Zhang Jingda's tens of thousands of troops are trapped in a heavy siege and cannot get any news from the court, and his morale is depressed. If they knew that the reinforcements had arrived in Tuanbai Valley, they would definitely work together to survive in death. Even the strongest walls of the copper walls could be broken through! What's more, just the Hu people's rangers?"

After hearing this, Li Yi quickly reported Long Min's new suggestion to Li Congke. However, Li Congke had completely lost confidence and sighed: "Long Min is worthy of being a hero, but it's too late." Li Congke felt that it was unlikely to succeed from picking out a thousand people from these arrogant and unwilling guards to carry out such a dangerous mission that would last forever and death, and to expect them to obey orders and follow the command. So, just like Long Min's first idea, the second idea was left unresolved.

Since the emperor and the King of Beiping were unreliable, the 50,000 troops in Jin'an Village gradually fell into an irresistible desperate situation! During the months of being surrounded, two generals Gao Xingzhou and Fu Yanqing led cavalry to attack many times, trying to make a gap in the encirclement. However, the soldiers and horses of each town were uneven, and each time they broke through, they returned because they were outnumbered and failed. As time went by, the Tang army's ability to rescue themselves became weaker and weaker. The reason was very simple. The war horses with a much larger appetite than the people first ate the grass accumulated in the middle of Jin'an Village.

In order not to let their war horses starve to death, the Tang cavalry had to wash horse manure and pick up undiluted plants to feed the horses. Soon this method didn't work. After all, the hungry horses could not pull out much horse manure. So they cut the wood into thin silk and pretended to be fodder to feed the horses. Even the least picky war horses could not stand this kind of food. They were hungry and chewed each other's horse's hair and tails, and waited for a war horse to be no longer beautiful.

Mane, horses starved to death.

As the number of war horses decreased, many cavalry had to turn into infantry. Of course, there were some benefits. A large amount of horse meat supplemented the shortage of food, and people's food was temporarily sufficient. However, because there was still no news about reinforcements, the morale of the entire army gradually fell to the bottom.

Seeing that sooner or later, Deputy Commander Yang Guangyuan and An Guo Jiedushi An advised the head coach Zhang Jingda several times, saying, "Or why we surrender, at least these tens of thousands of soldiers can survive now." Although Zhang Jingda was not very capable of fighting, he still had some backbone. He deserved the reputation of "pig iron" and refused to surrender. He said, "I have received the kindness of two generations of emperors, but I was defeated as a marshal. I am already very guilty. How can I lead the crowd to surrender to the enemy again? I believe that reinforcements will come sooner or later, and we should wait. If reinforcements really don't arrive, you can cut off my head and go out to surrender on the day of the end of the road, it is not too late!"

After hearing the words of head coach Zhang Jingda, deputy coach Yang Guangyuan believed that his proposal was good and reasonable. But since he was willing to sacrifice, why should he wait until the end of his life? Doing that thing early will make everyone relieved sooner?

But Yang Guangyuan broke his arm during the war with the Khitans in his early years, and it was inconvenient to do it himself. He immediately winked at An Shenqi: Come on, kill Zhang Jingda, we will all be saved! An Shenqi was also a little hesitant, afraid of being the first to be the leader, and thought to himself: As the deputy commander of the army, you won’t do it yourself, and leave it to me to do such evil things. Is it because of the end of the matter so that you can push all the sins on me? Because of their mutual calculations, nothing happened to Zhang Jingda that day.

It is difficult to kill Zhang Jingda at this time. General Gao Xingzhou knew that the morale of the army was unstable and was worried that someone would assassinate the commander, so he personally brought a group of elite guards, often following Zhang Jingda to prevent accidents. However, he knew the people but not the person. Zhang Jingda became suspicious of him first and said to his left and right: "Gao Xingzhou has been following me recently. What exactly does he want to do?" Gao Xingzhou did not dare to be active when he heard this. Yang Guangyuan and others secretly contacted their fellow party members to prepare for the uprising.

On the morning of November 9th, the generals were going to Zhang Jingda's tent to hold a meeting. Yang Guangyuan and An Shenqi and other accomplices arrived in advance. Taking advantage of Gao Xingzhou who did not participate in their relationship, the other generals Fu Yanqing had not arrived yet, and they attacked Zhang Jingda in one fell swoop!

Zhang Jingda was dead, and the obstacles that hindered everyone's survival were eliminated. All the generals unanimously decided to surrender to the Khitan, and there was no objection to the link between Gao Xingzhou and Fu Yanqing who came. At this time, most of the 50,000 troops in Jin'an Village were still alive, but 10,000 war horses had been eaten by 5,000.

Nearly 50,000 enemy troops turned against each other, which was equivalent to a huge change of 100,000 people in the comparison of the forces between the two sides. By this time, it can be said that the victory of the Khitan and the Later Jin Dynasty was really no longer suspense! Yelu Deguang, who was overjoyed, met all surrendered generals, and many of them had long been known to him. So Yelu Deguang comforted each of them, and each of them rewarded the Khitans with a fur and a felt hat. The surrendered generals were forced to wear Hu clothes for review by the Hu emperor.

Then, Yelu Deguang asked the surrendered generals to lead the way and entered Jin'an Village to inspect. When he saw the horse bones all over the ground, he laughed and said, "You are really a group of evil men. You don't use salt and butter sauce as ingredients, and you will eat ten thousand war horses!" Although the only number of war horses that were actually eaten was only one of the only ones.

Half, but no one dares to say something wrong with the Khitan Emperor.

Yelu Deguang came to Zhang Jingda's body and ordered people to bury them well, and burn incense to sacrifice themselves. Then, Yelu Deguang said to himself and Shi Jingtang's subordinates in front of the surrendered generals: "You ministers should learn from Zhang Jingda like this, be loyal to the Lord and be loyal to him until death!"

Five thousand war horses and 50,000 sets of armor in the Anzhai camp of Jin were taken over by Yelu Deguang and transported to the Khitan. Five thousand surrendered soldiers and generals, Yelu Deguang bought them all and handed them over to Shi Jingtang. After the Emperor of Later Jin was re-armed, he served as the army of Later Jin.

Before completing this arrangement, Yelu Deguang said to the surrendered generals: "Serve your new master well and don't have any other intentions!" Most of the surrendered generals silently accepted the arrangement of fate and endured humiliation and lived a life of silence. Only one of the commanders of the horse army, Kang Sili, was so embarrassed that he was so angry that he died of anger!

As soon as the Later Tang army in Anzhai of Jin surrendered, Shi Jingtang immediately sent a large number of envoys to various prefectures to persuade them to surrender. Most of the prefectures and counties north of Taiyuan surrendered to the Later Jin, and only a few prefectures and counties refused to obey. Zhang Lang, the governor of Daizhou, killed the envoys of the Later Jin and continued to be loyal to the Later Tang.

Duanming Palace scholar Lu Qi was ordered to reward the army, and was walking to Xinzhou at this time. He met an envoy sent by Shi Jingtang and immediately beheaded the envoy. Then, Lu Qi advised Xinzhou Governor Ding Shenqi and said, "Before, the barbarians passed by the city, they didn't look at the city more often, which shows that their hearts were not small. When they returned to the army, the entire territory would definitely not be safe! It would be better to take advantage of the Khitans that had not arrived yet, and lead the entire city to withdraw early and go to Zhenzhou for refuge through Wutai."

Ding Shenqi first agreed, but before leaving, he repented and closed the inner city and refused to leave. The soldiers around Lu Qi wanted to attack the inner city immediately, but Lu Qi stopped them and said, "When is the country? Do we still have to kill each other?" Then, Lu Qi left the city with those who were willing to leave. Ding Shenqi waited for them to leave and immediately surrendered to the Khitan.

On the third day after the surrender of the Later Tang army in Anzhai of Jin, Yelu Deguang and Shi Jingtang slightly digested their victory results, their strength increased greatly, and decided to lead their troops south to conquer and destroy the Later Tang. Before going to war, Shi Jingtang prepared to let a son stay in Taiyuan. In front of his godfather, his family had no internal affairs. Shi Jingtang did not dare to take the initiative without authorization, so he specially asked his sons to stand in a row and asked Yelu Deguang to choose and decide which grandson is suitable?

Shi Jingtang had a total of six sons. Among them, the eldest son Shi Chongyin and the second son Shi Chongyi had been killed in Luoyang, and the youngest son Shi Chonggao died young. Three others were left in Taiyuan, namely Empress Li, the eldest princess of Jin in the Later Tang Dynasty, the only parent-child, Shi Chongxin, King of Chu, Shi Chongyi, King of Shou, and Shi Chongrui, the younger son who was not a minor. In addition to the three sons, Shi Jingtang originally had an elder brother named Shi Jingru, who had been dead for many years. Shi Jingtang adopted his elder brother's son Shi Chonggui and regarded him as his own. Although Shi Chonggui was just a nephew, he looked more like his adoptive father Shi Jingtang than his own son. At this time, he also stood up together to accept the selection of Grandpa Gan.

Yelu Deguang took a look at this little one "Shi Jingtang" at a glance, pointed at Shi Chonggui and said, "Let's choose this big-eyed grandson." The Khitan Emperor probably didn't expect that people with similar appearances may not behave like each other, and having good sons may not necessarily have good grandsons.

If you want to know what happens next, please listen to the next breakdown!
Chapter completed!