Wanyan Wushu and Han Chang abandoned their baggage and crossed the Longmen at night. By the time they crossed the river, it was already dawn. This day was May 27th of the fourth year of Jianyan in the Song Dynasty and the eighth year of Tianhui in the Jin Dynasty.

Around noon that day, let's not talk about how Wushu led an army of 20,000 to travel hundreds of miles each day, continuously marching two hundred miles for two days. Let's just say that the news of his departure across the river had already been continuously transmitted by scouts, and was first sent along the Yellow River to Wanyan Eliduo in Hezhong Prefecture, the commander of this expedition.

The weather was hot. Eliduo, who had been staying in a temple in the city, was discussing Buddhist issues with a monk under the shade of a tree. Upon seeing a Jin officer approaching with a solemn expression and a saber, the monk took the initiative to stand up, bow, and excuse himself to avoid suspicion.

"Crossed the river?" Eliduo, dressed in plain clothes, absentmindedly stood up to see off the monk. Turning back, he stated the obvious.

"Yes." The officer was caught off guard and could only bow his head in agreement. "The scout only said this."

"Good to cross the river, good to cross the river!" For some reason, even though he knew a decisive battle was imminent, Eliduo instead felt a sense of relaxation all over his body. He slumped onto the stone bench under the shade of the tree, sighing for a moment.

In the end, this battle was truly arduous... or rather, this battle truly made the Jin army feel the kind of hardship they hadn't experienced in a long time.

Ever since the Jingkang Incident, the Zhao Song Dynasty was like a decapitated person, almost falling into a state of national demise. The Jin army thoroughly regarded the Song army as nothing.

At that time, they abandoned the captured Central Plains and Guanzhong and turned back, not because they didn't want to take this prosperous world, but because they had already eaten too much. Besides, they hadn't swallowed the fertile land of Hebei yet, so there had to be a sequence, right?

However, who would have thought that after half a year, when they came again, it was easy to swallow Hebei, but the Zhao Song Dynasty had revived from the ashes. Moreover, resistance forces were everywhere. Huazhou was difficult to cross, Shanzhou was lost again, and they were blocked on the Huai River. A group of refugees, defeated soldiers, and fugitive officials stubbornly brought the Zhao Song Dynasty back to life.

Therefore, after another year, the Jin court learned its lesson and only wanted to destroy the Zhao Song central government. Then, they would support a vassal state along the Yellow River, knowing their appetite was limited and intending to slowly figure it out. But this time, they simply encountered an unimaginable defeat on the frontal battlefield. Talan retreated in disgrace, and the efforts of the east and west armies were in vain.

After another year or so, this time, due to Lou Shi's vigorous advocacy, the Jin army concentrated its forces and came again with a fierce momentum. However, the Song army was no longer what it used to be... In four years, the emperor was recognized both internally and externally as enduring hardship and biding his time, the ministers did not dare to advocate peace, and the political situation was maintained as stable as possible. Then, they used the wealth and grain from the southeast, Lianghuai, Jingxiang, and Bashu to revive the 200,000 Imperial Guard and tens of thousands of Western Army.

From the East Sea to Longshang, the battle line stretched for tens of thousands of miles. The two sides crossed the Yellow River back and forth, advancing and retreating... The Jin army had not fought such a formal war for a long time.

Although all the Jin high-level officials knew that the Song army's soldiers were inferior to them in quality, their armor was inferior to them in quality, and the number of cavalry was ridiculously small, everyone had confidence in Lou Shi and the Western Army. However, this huge battle situation and the momentum of mutual exchanges still made Wanyan Eliduo, who originally thought he was just here to claim credit, feel enormous pressure.

In fact, from the start of this campaign, starting from the initial mobilization, Eliduo and his younger brother Wushu had discussed many things in the army... They talked about the political situation in Huining Prefecture and Yanjing, the situation between the Song and Jin Dynasties, the mass migration of the people in Shanxi, the conflicts between the Meng'an Mouke of Hebei and the local Han people, and the young Zhao Song official in the south.

After the war started in Hezhong Prefecture, they talked about Han Shizhong and Li Yanxian, Lou Shi and Yinshuke. As they talked, the surprise attack on Luoyang succeeded, but what followed was difficult for Eliduo to understand.

The city of Luoyang was breached, and under the dragon banner was just an empty city and a defending minister. This was nothing. The key was that this successful surprise attack did not cause a huge ripple in the battle situation. Sisui Pass remained unconquered for a long time, and the Xiaoshan Mianchi Ancient Road was firmly blocked... It was as if the fall of Luoyang was just the fall of Luoyang. The situation where a single point was broken and the entire line collapsed disappeared completely.

Then, there was the intelligence that Yue Fei led a full 40,000 Song troops to appear in Hebei.

At this time, Eliduo did not know whether the calmness of the Song army on the south bank was a pretense, but he was very sure that the East Route Army was truly panicked! Every Meng'an, every Mouke, and every Puli Yan was worried about the wealth, men and women, and houses in their homes. Even though Talan, Gao Jingshan, and others led tens of thousands of troops in Daming Prefecture, they were still uneasy.

Helpless, Eliduo could only agree to the collective petition of these officers and send 40,000 troops back north, which was to force back the Song army from Huguan... This move was almost equivalent to abandoning the plan to forcibly cross from Shanzhou or Tongzhou.

Yue Pengju's northern crossing had actually achieved its strategic goal from the beginning.

However, from the moment he agreed, the Third Prince directly recognized many of his fourth brother Wanyan Wushu's views in his heart, and also recognized the latter's plan to lead 20,000 troops to wait at Longmen Ferry for support... Because Eliduo completely realized that the relationship between Song and Jin was no longer the simple crushing relationship it used to be.

Even if they won this time and took Guanzhong, it would be the same... Unless the Zhao Song official, whom his fourth brother regarded as the root cause of the Song army's current state, and the main force of the Song army were eliminated in this battle.

"Third Prince..."

Seeing the commander-in-chief distracted, the officer who came to report hesitated slightly. "Now that the Fourth Prince has crossed the river, should we do something here?"

Eliduo suddenly came back to his senses and nodded immediately. He also felt that it was a bit too much to push everything and responsibility onto the fourth brother alone. However, this Third Prince, although he felt that he should do something, had very little battle experience... After all, since the time of Aguda, the four elder princes had their own divisions of labor. The eldest, Wanyan Wuben, often served as Aguda's personal guard; the second, Wolibu, often served as an external commander; the fourth, at that time young, often served as a vanguard in battle; and the third, Eliduo, often guarded the main camp.

This work, euphemistically called strategizing, was, to put it bluntly, watching the home and supervising the battle. Therefore, Eliduo simply did not know how to share the burden for Wushu for a while.

"We can concentrate our forces and attack Pinglu strongly, so that the Song army will focus their attention here!" The officer carefully suggested. "Our current strength is actually not appropriate. If we forcibly cross Pujin, I am afraid that it will backfire. On the contrary, Pinglu, an isolated city, has not been taken for days. We hesitated a little to sneak across Luoyang before, but now we don't have to worry about it..."

Eliduo nodded immediately.

It turned out that Pinglu had not yet been captured by the Jin army.

One day passed, and May 28th arrived peacefully... Early in the morning, the Jin army in Hedong, which had already surrounded the city properly, launched a large-scale attack on Pinglu. Li Yanxian personally directed the troops to cross the river from Shanzhou City to support. The battle situation was fierce for a while. As the closest two war zones, and also the two war zones with the highest degree of actual war relevance, Li Yanxian did not forget to immediately send a battle situation report to Han Shizhong to prepare the latter.

At noon, Han Shizhong received the report, but he was still hesitant... because Pujin Ferry was calm.

Han Liangchen, as the highest-level general, was one of the few who had an understanding of the entire battle situation, just like Li Yanxian. In fact, he and Li Yanxian were probably the two people on the entire battlefield who were most clear about the battle situation... He knew everything about the fall of Luoyang, Zhao Jiu did not hide the fact that Yue Fei crossed the river north, and he also knew that the Beiwei Army had secretly crossed Chang'an. Even the situation of the Jin army dividing a large force to go north earlier, others did not know, but he was across a river here, so it was impossible for him not to notice.

Moreover, just yesterday, he had received a personal letter from the official about a possible decisive battle in the next two days, telling him to be careful about the direction of Pujin and the direction of Longmen.

But now, Pujin Ferry was too calm, and the unimportant city of Pinglu was being besieged instead.

In just an instant, Han Shizhong, who was stationed on the bank of the Yellow River, smelled a trace of tension, panic, but also excitement. Then, he immediately sent a messenger to the troops stationed in the Liangshan area, ordering them to cross the Liangshan area and conduct forward reconnaissance in groups of thousands... The battlefield was so big, Han Shizhong had no reason not to think of Longmen Ferry.

Of course, in theory, it was already insignificant for Han Shizhong to smell these things at this time, because according to Lou Shi's arrangement, this day should be the moment of the decisive battle.

Everything should be too late.

However, on this day, up until Han Shizhong sent his messengers galloping north, the entire Yaoshan-Wulongshan-Baishui area was as calm as ever.

Until noon, Lou Shi did not send out any troops, and the entire Jin army camp was the same as in the previous few days.

If there was any difference, it was that the weather was a little duller, but it still didn't rain.

In the afternoon, Lou Shi still did not send troops, and the troops arranged by Han Shizhong on the south side of Liangshan, such as Dong Min's 3,000 soldiers, had begun to rush north for reconnaissance.

At this time, Wu Jie, the commander of the Song army, fell into great self-doubt... The dullness of the weather had already been noticed by ordinary people, but the Jin army did not attack, which made him feel a trace of wavering and hesitation, and then he suspected all his judgments.

Although the Zhao official on the mountain behind did not say anything, Wu Da still felt a clear sense of shame.

He had been defeated again and again, but his official position became higher and higher. He finally won once, and got an unprecedented opportunity for it, but he lost it again and again. What strategy, what response, open and secret, none of them worked.

By the time it was evening, seeing that the Jin army was still not moving, Wu Jie thought for a long time, but in the end, as yesterday, with the help of the Hanlin Academician, he summoned the generals of each department again and signed a formal military order, requiring the entire army to cook ahead of time early the next morning, and each camp to check weapons and supplies... It was as if he was continuing his war preparations, and also adhering to his judgment.

He couldn't figure out where he had made a mistake.

However, once the military order was signed, before the sun had set, Wu Jie locked himself in the central army tent, holding his head and refusing to come out, not even eating a bite of honeydew melon... One hundred thousand soldiers, the land of the six passes of Guanzhong, the safety of the official, although he should not hesitate because of the official's favor, but who could know this pressure?

"The war will start tomorrow."

After sunset, just after dinner, Lou Shi gathered all the senior military officers of the Jin army camp and calmly announced a fact. "It was supposed to be today, but the Fourth Prince and his 20,000 reinforcements are having a hard time marching and are late... It's not the Fourth Prince's fault, it's my problem. I estimated the speed of our march along the Beiluoshui River, but I underestimated the difficulty of marching for a large force, and I didn't expect the East Route Army to have never marched on such a plain before."

Below Bali Su, the Jin generals were not worried but happy, because 20,000 reinforcements, even if they were rushed to support, would be enough to change the overall situation.

"But also be careful of extra reinforcements from the Song army." Lou Shi sat upright in the tent and continued to calmly explain the situation. "The Fourth Prince was originally scheduled to arrive on the bank of the Beiluoshui River last night, and then lead the cavalry to raid south today, but in fact, he only stumbled into the Fangzhou area this morning, and the location was quite a bit north, and there were many lost soldiers... On the Fangzhou side, the city of Fangzhou can't hold many soldiers, Qu Duan must be stationed in the Yijun area to the south. The two sides are separated by a mountain, and maybe they will notice, and if they notice, he may rush south to support tomorrow."

"It is also possible to rush north, join forces with Wu Lin in Fangzhou City, attack the Hekou camp, and cut off our retreat." Bali Su interrupted and reminded with a blank expression. "It is also possible that they will not notice, but Huo Nv will move, and maybe it will alarm him!"

Lou Shi glanced at Bali Su and nodded slightly: "I know, so Huo Nv will guard the Hekou camp tomorrow and will not take risks rashly..."

Bali Su immediately shut up.

"Everyone!" At this point, Lou Shi suddenly stood up, holding the knife at his waist and looking around. "If Qu Duan does not support tomorrow, then it will be 50,000 against 80,000. If Qu Duan comes to support, it will only be the end of the crossbow. Except for a few cavalry, it will be of no great use... But no matter what, the opportunity has appeared, and there must be no hesitation... If any of you have any words, I allow you to speak now!"

The generals looked at each other, of course, without saying a word.

"Are you sure?" Late at night, because of suspicion during the day, Han Shizhong, who took the initiative to lead his Beiwei Army to Siqianzhen in the central part of Tongzhou, was awakened by his subordinates, and then received a message that did not surprise him.

"It's absolutely true!" The subordinate who reported the news was gasping for breath, but quickly repeated. "Our 3,000 people went north and found out the military situation before we separated. A large group of Jin troops passed through the north side of Liangshan yesterday, non-stop all day. The local mountain people saw it clearly, saying that there were many more people than us... Commander Dong asked his subordinates to spare no effort and quickly report this matter."

A force that is much larger than 3,000 troops is tens of thousands of troops. If they saw it yesterday, they might have already arrived at Beiluoshui or even Baishui now.

Han Shizhong, who instantly had a judgment in his heart, remained silent, and could only remain silent... because he had no one to discuss with, his troops, his capable subordinates were distributed in several cities and several riverside positions at this time.

Moreover, he didn't need to think about any extra words. At this moment, there were only two choices: support or not support.

Once he went to support, the troops at the riverside positions and Pujin Ferry could not be moved, and it was too late to move them. And if some cities, such as Chengcheng and other places in the northwest that were guarding against Lou Shi's invasion of Tongzhou, were within the scope of the scouts of Lou Shi's camp, once they were dispatched, the Jin army might immediately notice it, and then it would backfire.

Therefore, at this time, what Han Shizhong could dispatch, and could ensure that he could reach the Yaoshan battlefield within tomorrow, was actually only one Beiwei Army and Chang Le's Xu Shi'an, a total of seven or eight thousand people.

Seven or eight thousand people, rushing to the battlefield, might not be able to catch up with the decisive battle, and it was unknown how much combat power would remain if they caught up. This was definitely not worthwhile.

But after only a few breaths of silence, Han Shizhong had already made a decision... After all, the official had been very kind to him, how could he, Po Hanwu, not support? Or rather, during these few breaths, Han Shizhong did not consider whether to support or not. He was just thinking about the troop strength.

After all, he, Po Hanwu, was not a bastard like Qu Da!

The time came to early morning. Wanyan Wushu's troops, who were a day late, and were destined to have a huge unknowable impact on the battle situation, still followed Wushu and Han Chang to set off south along the Beiluoshui River, despite the pressure of huge non-combat attrition. But it must be said that this time, because of the river, the speed of the Jin army was much faster than the previous two days.

Almost at the same time, Han Shizhong in Tongzhou, after a little preparation, officially led his troops west. At the same time, his messenger went to Changle Town on the banks of the Beiluoshui River early and notified Xu Shi'an, who was stationed there.

Also almost at the same time, the Jin army camp first raised extremely conspicuous cooking smoke.

Then, Wanyan Lou Shi, the chief of the Shanxi Marching Division and the actual commander of this expedition to Guanzhong, issued the first military order of the day - each of the 30,000 troops, except for two Hezha Meng'an, would receive a pocket each, fill it with soil, and then receive a meal.

In this way, after dawn, the Jin army, after eating a full meal, led their war horses and guarded the big carts, and used almost all means to carry a pocket of soil that belonged to them, and then went out in full force.

Scouts reported in a panic, and the Song army camp received the news, and the entire line was shaken, as if facing a great enemy.

But then, the scouts reported again that although most of the Jin army had cavalry, their movements were slow, and judging from the direction of their actions, they were not heading directly to the Song army camp, but to Jin Suoshan, which was due east of the Song army camp and due south of the Jin army camp.

At this time, it was already daytime, and Wu Jie, the commander of the Song army, hesitated for a moment and only sent a small force of 2,000 people to rush forward and make a symbolic gesture of seizing Jin Suoshan.

In any case, up to this point, the Song and Jin armies had officially sent out their troops, and even Zhao Jiu had begun to put on armor and carry bows with the help of Yang Yizhong.

This day was the twenty-ninth day of May in the fourth year of Jianyan. The weather was a little dull, but there were no rain clouds, which was auspicious for sacrifices and inauspicious for earthworks.

ps: Continue to sacrifice the new book - the historical novel "The New Order of the Water Margin" with the skin of the Water Margin!

Interested students can take a look.