Twenty-two. Pingbu Qingyun

Seven years of the calendar, August.

Daming Mansion on Hebei Road.

The strategic strategic place in the north of the Song Dynasty, facing the north of the Yellow River and the Youyan River in the south, surrounded by Qianmo across thousands of miles of fertile fields, with the benefits of fish, salt and qi, full of all directions, silk, cotton cloth and silk, covering the world.

The merchants in the city are full of wealth and goods, and there are as many literati and poets as Bianliang. According to the statistics of the Ministry of Household Affairs, as of August of the seventh year of the lunar calendar, there are as many as 130,000 people living in Damingfu City, ranking first in the north.

The highland of Damingfu City is dangerous, wide and deep. In the city, there are restaurants, tea houses, book stalls, silk houses, shoe stores, hooks, brothels, soup pools, theaters, and treasure pavilions. Palaces, Taoist temples, Buddhist temples, and hermitage are in full bloom. The buildings are majestic and there are many monks and nuns.

There is a famous lake in Beijing in the northern suburbs of the city, which has the reputation of a mountain and half-city lake.

In the southern suburbs, there is Ma Ling Road where Sun Bin shot Pang Juan in the Warring States Period.

In the eastern suburbs, there is a palace built here by Wang Mang, a treacherous generation at the end of the Western Han Dynasty.

Not only that, Di Renjie, a famous minister in the Tang Dynasty, Kou Zhun, and even the three generations of Taizu, Taizong and Zhenzong of this dynasty, all came to Damingfu and led the army to fight against the Khitan people here.

The past is like the wind, and the dead are like this.

There are many legends that happened in Daming Mansion. Generally speaking, the praise of Lord Li Bai and Li of the Tang Dynasty is the most incisive. His poems are as follows:

Wei County picks up Yan Zhao beauty and hibiscus

Flood flow jasper boat car rushing day by day

The green building is sandwiched between the ten thousand rooms on both sides of the river

In mid-June this year, Liao's army of 300,000 troops went south to attack the Song Dynasty. Along the way, it was like a broken bamboo. Within a month, it reached Hejian Mansion and reached the Yellow River, which greatly shocked the Wenwu of the Man Dynasty in the Song Dynasty.

This is the second time that the iron cavalry of the Liao Dynasty has been under the city since the alliance of Changyuan, and the Song Dynasty is in danger of the destruction of the country.

The court headed by Empress Cao had to raise all the country's soldiers to the north to fight against Liao and defend the northern gate. This battle is a matter of life and death.

As soon as Fan Zhongyan arrived in office, Wang Ze and others, who rebelled in Beizhou, sent a messenger to send news, which means that if the court could recognize him as the Anyang Kingdom and make him the vassal king, he would work for the Song Dynasty, otherwise it would help Liao attack the Song Dynasty.

Fan Zhongyan was angry and wanted to kill Wang Ze's messenger, but he thought about why he didn't drive the tiger and swallow the wolf.

So, in a hurry, he forged an imperial edict and sent it to Beizhou. This matter was later used by Xia Zhen, causing Fan Zhongyan to be dismissed and lose his position, but that was a later story.

Besides, the king of Beizhou and others did not know that it was a fraud. After receiving the imperial edict, they shouted long live three times and kowtowed to the north. Then, a banquet was held to celebrate for three days and three nights. Congratulations, Wang Ze was canonized as the king of Anyang by the court, and the rest were added to the title of Jinjue.

A few days later, that is, the seventh year of the lunar calendar, August 11.

The army of the Third Road in Liao Dynasty went south from the front line of Hejianfu and Zhendingfu and attacked on a large-scale basis.

On the 11th, sweeping the area south of Cangzhou, Cangzhou Zhizhou and Tuntian envoy Yin Yuan led a civilian group of more than 8,000 people to fight against the Liao's iron horse in the area of Xiaoshan and Magu Mountain. He annihilated more than 5,000 enemies and killed more than 30 enemy chieftains. In the end, he was burned to death in the mountains by the iron horse of Liao. Half a century later, the Southern Song Dynasty recovered the land. In order to commemorate Yin Yuan, who would rather die than give up, and the 8,000 people's soldiers, the local people spent a tree monument by the sea to show their nostalgia.

On the 12th, the general of Liaoning, Yelu Ren, led his army south to attack the Yongning army. The Zhi army led the troops to the north to the big tree slope to fight, dispersing 20,000 troops on the river bank. The front line was several miles long. He wanted to prevent the Liao army from crossing the river with ease. He was judged by Jiang Zhongli to remind him that the Liao soldiers were not the best strategy to fight against the enemy. Xiang Jian was angry and killed Jiang Zhongli on the grounds of shaking the heart of the army.

At noon, Yelu Renxian personally led his troops to cross the canal, and the left and right flanked cavalry attacked the Yongning army from Nanpi, Cangzhou all the way, bypassed Shenzhou Wuqiang, crossed the north of Jizhou, and rushed into the Yongning army along the foot of the mountain.

On the first day of the war, the Yongning army was defeated. Seeing that the Liao army surrounded the big tree slope on three sides, he abandoned the army and fled to the south alone. Half a month later, Xiang Sui was tried in Damingfu. Fan Zhongyan ordered Xiang Sui to behead in the name of escaping from the battle. From then on, he married a deep blood feud with the Kaifeng Mingmen Xiang family.

On the 13th, Yelu Qiuhan, the king of the Southern Court of Liaoning, and Fubi, the superintendent, led 80,000 troops out of Zhendingfu and swept the four prefectures of Zhao, Shen, Ji and Xing with lightning. ( Note: Fu Bi here is actually the son of Yelu Zongzhen, the emperor of the Liao Dynasty, named Yelu Dehua, who pretends to be Fu Bi and has been lurking in the Song Dynasty for many years)

Ma Zhongfu, a general judge in Zhaozhou, and Zhenyuan, a monk in Berlin, led more than 10,000 people to defend the city for seven days and seven nights. Finally, they were defeated by the Liao army and the whole city was slaughtered.

Wang Ding, a thousand people from Zhizhou, Shenzhou, led more than a thousand people out of the city to fight and was captured. The general of Liao persuaded him to surrender. Wang Ding was not willing to die. Before his death, he asked the generals of Liao not to slaughter the city. Without consent, he scolded the Liao people for being as good as pigs and dogs. As a result, he was cut to death with a knife.

Wang Degong, the governor of Jizhou, and Shi Kai, the regimental training envoy, led the whole city's army and people to fight against the enemy, and repelled the Liao soldiers who attacked the city three times. Later, the Liao people brought iron armored artillery to break through the gate of Jizhou. Wang Degong and Shi Kai led the army to block the Liao soldiers to the gate and cover the escape of the people. After two hours of the melee, Wang Degong was killed by dozens of arrows, and Shi Kai narrowly escaped.

Zhao Buri, who is 80 years old in Zhizhou, Xingzhou, died of excessive anger and stroke when the Liao soldiers attacked the city, and Xingzhou was lost.

On the 14th, Los Angeles was conquered.

On the 15th, the king of Beizhou was defeated and fled to Binzhou by the sea.

On the 16th, the left-wing soldiers and horses of the Liao Kingdom took down Dizhou and Dezhou again, eliminating the threat of the left wing of the middle army. So far, the three armies of the Liao Kingdom came to Beijing, and the decisive battle was imminent. ( Note: "di" read "dì")

Turn around and talk about Jingshi.

On this day, Zhao Ze won a complete victory in Huanzhou and Qingzhou, and the news of the annihilation of 50,000 enemies flew into Bianliang, causing a huge sensation.

There is no need to mention the response of the people. The whole city rushed to tell each other and rejoiced.

The Wenwu of the Manchu Dynasty, who stayed behind in the capital, almost danced excitedly in the early morning. He kept praising Zhao Ze's command in Huanzhou, waved Fang Yu, and used soldiers like gods. He had a kind of worldly and balanced demeanor. He was witty and courageous, brave, and so that the Xixia army threw away his armor. It was really relieved. After many years, the northwest border was finally born again. A famous general inherited the manoth of Zhong Shiheng.

At the same time, even the imperial historians who have always loved to pick bones in eggs also praised the Huanzhou Army, praised Zhao Ze, and asked to praise him immediately.

Empress Cao, who listened to the government, was overjoyed and immediately issued an order to praise the defenders of Huanzhou. All the non-commissioned officers were promoted to one level, and Zhao Ze jumped to become a deputy lieutenant of Zhaowu, one step away from the five-grade guerrilla general.

In view of the good situation in the northwest, Du Yan, the secret envoy who had just been transferred back to the capital from Yangzhou, suggested that Zhao Ze be promoted to Huanqing Road, saying that the court attached great importance to it and let him take on the important position of fighting against the recovery of lost land in Xixia.

At this point, no one in the court objected, even if Zhao Ze was still young and had not yet reached the "quality" to bear this important task according to the rules of his ancestors. However, their achievements are there, and there are facts to prove it. Teng Zijing, a magistrate of Qingzhou, also wrote to Beijing to explain the victory of Huanqing Road, which is enough to show that Zhao Ze is a real material, not a soldier on Zhao Kuo paper.

There is another point. Now that the enemy is now, as long as you win, it means that you are a general and know how to use troops. That's what Empress Cao thinks. She has a knowledgeable vision. If you want to understand whether a border general has the ability, you only need to know through one or two battles, so the victory of the two states in Huanqing has laid the foundation for Zhao Ze's smooth progress.

Then,

Empress Cao immediately agreed to the proposal of Du Yan, the Privy Councillor, and ordered Zhiza Yushi Yu Zhou Xun to bring the imperial edict and other things to reward the border army to Qingzhou on the same day, and praised Zhao Ze, hoping that Zhao Ze could continue to lead the border army to completely repel the Xixia people, recover the rivers and mountains, and serve the country faithfully.