The Bai River, flowing south from the east side of Nanyang and then turning southeast at the foot of Yushan Mountain in Yu Province, is very likely related to the Yu River of the Three Kingdoms period, at the very least, they share a blood relationship.

Over the millennia, this river, along with Nanyang City, has witnessed too much rise and fall, too much war.

Therefore, on this day, when another unremarkable military activity unfolded around the river, it simply couldn't be bothered to react, but welcomed everything in silence.

While it was still dark, Song troops began to cross the river at the three large pontoon bridge areas in the south.

Bai River surrounds Nanyang on two sides. Nanyang is a famous large city with a large population, developed handicrafts and agriculture, and is the main route from Jing and Xiang regions to the Central Plains. Therefore, this place is usually densely populated with people coming and going, a hub of commerce and trade. Nanyang also has a tradition of seasonal or even permanent pontoon bridges to the south and east.

This is also an important reliance for Zhao Jiu's departure from the city tonight. He knows that crossing the river before the ice melts is unlikely to be a problem. Neither the Jin army, nor Zhang Yu's troops, nor Zhang Jing who is coming to help, have any reason to dismantle the pontoon bridge during the freezing period. On the contrary, they will take advantage of the ice layer to set up a pontoon bridge as early as possible during the ice melting period.

Back to the present, the Song army began to cross the river in an orderly manner, and Yang Yizhong leading more than half of the Imperial Guards' presence in the formation almost convinced most of the Song army's main force, except for Wang De and Zhang Jing, that Zhao Guan Jia was with them.

Even some of the Imperial Guards who followed Zhao Guan Jia out of the city in a daze at night were convinced that Guan Jia was in the army, but they just hadn't met him due to the chaos of the march and the darkness.

This is the so-called "to deceive the enemy, first deceive yourself."

And sure enough, just as half of the Song army had safely crossed the river in the south of the city, in the darkness behind Yushan Mountain, the former Yushan camp, about twenty miles away in a straight line to the east of Nanyang, Zhao Guan Jia and hundreds of Chixin Team cavalry, who had been waiting here, heard a rumbling sound that was not very loud at first, but had a wide range of vibration, like a deliberately suppressed muffled thunder.

Needless to say, Zhao Guan Jia and most of the military elites in the city guessed right, and bet right. The ten thousand cavalry of the Jin army that withdrew to the north yesterday were not going to support Talun, but to encircle! Even prepared for it, otherwise they would not have come so quickly!

The ten thousand cavalry galloped, but to avoid alarming the enemy, they obviously chose to complete the encirclement from a slightly farther place. As the muffled thunder of the horses' hooves approached, the whistling cold wind faintly carried the sound of neighing, indicating the great momentum of the cavalry.

It is said that, knowing that the two sides were separated by a river plus an unknown number of miles, and knowing that the winter morning sun rises extremely late, the remaining night was enough to obscure most people's figures, but everyone still instinctively chose to hold their breath, lower their flags and silence their drums, quietly waiting for the large Jin army to pour over the east.

Among them, how others were nervous and what they were thinking is hard to say, but Zhao Jiu, wearing armor and carrying a bow and arrow, stood with his hands tied behind his back against a rock, just like his posture under the city during the artillery battle... but the mood was completely different.

Moreover, at this time, whether it was due to a big heart or a "nothing to lose" attitude, Zhao Jiu actually continued to think about the questions he had not finished thinking about before in the sound of horses' hooves. He kept thinking, kept thinking, why did it come to this situation?

The Jin army's current actions did not exceed the imagination and expectations of those Great Song military elites; the Jin army's siege efforts were great, but fell into complete defeat under the higher-level city defense skills of the Great Song; even from a global perspective, the Jin army's overall strategic planning could not be said to be so outstanding, and the Song army's response was not so much of a failure.

However, the situation finally came to the present step by step – an emperor, putting himself next to ten thousand enemy cavalry, desperately seeking a glimmer of life!

Is this reasonable?

Is this the same as leaving the city in Ruyang that time?

That time, he was condescending, going to meet Zhai Chong with a certain sense of security. The ministers even disliked him for losing his status. This time, he had to survive the ten thousand Jin cavalry in the wilderness outside the city, and use the lives of tens of thousands of soldiers as bait.

He knew his own weight, others didn't know, didn't he, Zhao Jiu, know? He was neither Li Shimin nor Zhao Kuangyin. Eight hundred cavalry were hiding here, and if they were discovered by the Jin people, it would be a dead end.

However, what else could he do at this time?

Wasn't he in a desperate situation now? If he sat still, wouldn't Han Shizhong and tens of thousands of people between him and the Five Rivers be finished? Even the Tokyo Retained Division was about to completely collapse, and two-thirds of the country's military power would disappear out of thin air!

He was simply forced to Liangshan!

Lin Chong was at the Wind and Snow Mountain Temple, and he was on the dark night bank of the Bai River, but both wanted to "kill the cold, talk about the cold." (想时杀气侵人冷，讲处悲风透骨寒。)

I don't know if there is really a Lin Chong among the thirty-six bandits of Song Jiang, and whether he really came from the Imperial Army?

Thinking of this, he couldn't think anymore.

Half an hour later, the muffled thunder continued, but had moved from the northeast to the southeast. At this time, the sky was already dawning. It was conceivable that after dawn, the Jin army would inevitably engage in a fierce battle with the Song army that had completely crossed the river as planned... and at this moment, Zhao Guan Jia suddenly got up, stepped forward and took his war horse, turned and went towards the Bai River pontoon bridge, ignoring the fact that the Jin army's large force had not yet moved away.

The surrounding people suddenly fell into panic. Some instinctively took their horses and followed, others were busy stopping him, and still others tried to remonstrate, but they were afraid to speak loudly.

"After crossing the river," Zhao Jiu did not pay attention to these commotions, but looked at Liu Yan seriously and instructed. "The Jin army's vanguard must have already engaged in battle. At that time, let the entire Chixin Team not be too concealed, and directly gallop east away from the battlefield. If they encounter small groups of Jin troops, they should take the initiative to reprimand them and let them clear the way."

The people behind him heard this and instantly woke up, but they did not try to persuade him again. Instead, they admired Zhao Guan Jia's carefulness in a hurry. You must know that Liu Yan and the Chixin Team were all from Liaodong, and their accents were no different from the cavalry in the Jin army. This is probably why Yang Yizhong, who has a higher status and more reliable identity, was sent to lure the enemy, while Liu Yan led the Chixin Team to accompany him.

In this way, eight hundred cavalry cautiously crossed the Bai River, then mounted their horses, protected Zhao Guan Jia and several ministers in the center, and galloped east.

Facts have proved that Zhao Jiu's decision to cross the river before the Jin army had completely passed and before dawn was not a problem, because all the Jin army's minds were on the south. Although they encountered a few scattered cavalry units along the way, they were all intent on rushing, without noticing the Chixin Team cavalry with slightly different attire in the faint morning light.

In the morning, the entire army arrived safely at Qingtai Town, several dozen miles east of Nanyang, and crossed the Mi River via a stone bridge.

So far, the entire army rested briefly, drank water and used grain, dismounted to feed the horses, and then did not hesitate to use the precious war horses, and then set off again in a hurry - this is nothing, because the reason why war horses are usually regarded as treasures is for this situation!

But the problem is that Zhao Guan Jia took the lead and actually galloped directly to the east! Instead of going south along the Mi River!

At this time, not to mention the soldiers below, Hu Yin, the Deputy Censor-in-Chief, who was the second most important person in the team, finally reacted with a jolt. Zhao Guan Jia was not going to Xiangyang! But to the east... going to the east, he couldn't possibly be going to see Zhang Jun. Eight or nine out of ten, he was going to turn to Yanling!

Of course, by this time, probably only Censor Hu, who was absolutely useless when it came to military matters, had just reacted!

However, on the other hand, once he didn't have to consider military matters, Hu Mingzhong was immediately that extremely clever man who used to handle Han Shizhong like handling a child!

Therefore, once he woke up, Hu Yin, holding the horse's neck and following Zhao Guan Jia in a daze, immediately became both happy and worried.

He was happy that Guan Jia had not lost his spirit after all, and had not chosen to give up the initiative to go to Xiangyang to avoid the situation. He was still the Zhao Guan Jia who crossed the river on a snowy night in Huaishang to see Zhang Jun. But he was worried that, combining with his previous disputes with Liu Ziyu, Li Guang and others, Hu Yin began to suspect the reason why Guan Jia insisted on bringing him on this trip... Wouldn't it be because he was worried that he, Hu Mingzhong, would stay in Nanyang and ruin the military situation?

In Guan Jia's eyes, was he, Hu Mingzhong, just someone who would ruin the situation?

At the thought of this, the Deputy Censor-in-Chief felt both ashamed and angry, but he could only grit his teeth and say nothing, because it was meaningless to say or think anything at this time.

In the afternoon, eight hundred cavalry arrived at the Zhongyang Mountain area in the easternmost part of the former Tang Prefecture, now Nanyang Prefecture. The entire army slowed down as they passed through the mountains. Then Zhao Guan Jia ordered them to draw water and use grain for the second time. After setting off again, he ordered half of the soldiers to abandon their horses on the spot and go to Bi Yang. The remaining four hundred people, with two horses per person, continued to march without stopping!

It is said that, just as Zhao Guan Jia was rushing to Yanling at all costs, the battle in Nanyang had already been decided. And facts have proved that in the wilderness, facing a large Jin army cavalry, the Song army was basically powerless to fight back.

Even though Wang De, Yang Yizhong, and Zhang Jing had been instructed in advance that once they successfully lured the enemy, they could immediately return to the city, so they immediately turned back north when they realized that a large Jin army was attacking at dawn; even though the three generals consciously slowed down their crossing of the river, deliberately leaving the heavy supplies on the inner side of the Bai River, so their actions were light; even though they had set up a defense line against cavalry on the east side of the Bai River... But facing the great flanking attack carried out by Wanyan Balisu personally leading ten thousand iron cavalry, the Song army still seemed so vulnerable!

In just half an hour of engagement, the entire Song army had entered a rout mode. The three generals were helpless and could only lead the troops they could control and try to guide some of the troops to retreat north.

But the Song army's misfortune was not over. After dawn, in addition to Wanyan Balisu's rapid attack on the outside of the Bai River, Wanyan Wushu, after learning the news, did not give up blocking and encircling the inner side of the Bai River. In the morning, Han Chang led an equally large number of cavalry, rushing to attack, and quickly joined the battle, apparently wanting to sandwich the Song army across the river with Wanyan Balisu and completely defeat this force they had been waiting for so long!

At this time, for the Song army, fighting was meaningless. The entire army was basically trying to escape if they could.

On the top of Nanyang City, countless officials who had fallen into chaos and disputes because Guan Jia suddenly went south to Xiangyang, watching this tragic scene, basically lost the desire to argue - this scene was too much like the conscripted troops that were defeated outside Tokyo during the Jingkang Incident.

Even the current situation seemed worse than during the Jingkang period, because no one knew Zhao Guan Jia's safety under such a miserable defeat. Once Zhao Guan Jia died, everything would be fine.

Fortunately, the two Chancellor Lü showed great calmness and execution. Under their lenient and strict handling, the city maintained a certain order, the artillery positions were activated in time, and the city troops were immediately deployed along the sheep and horse wall, effectively curbing the actions of the Jin army cavalry outside the city, and also allowing a large number of Song army defeated soldiers to escape.

However, this large number was only relative to the tragic scene during the day. Only when the defeated soldiers were checked at night did they discover that Wang De's unit, Yang Yizhong's unit, and Zhang Jing's unit, a total of ten thousand people, had only returned to the city with four thousand. The large camp in the east of the city was also recaptured by the Jin army. The three generals were still alive, but except for Wang De who was unharmed, the other two were injured.

But at this time, these really didn't matter. It was a blessing to be able to come back alive.

Of course, after the entire city learned the news that Guan Jia "used ten thousand troops as bait to detour to Xiangyang," although they were stunned in their hearts and felt that someone was increasingly cold-blooded, they at least realized that the Great Song had not yet perished, the city could still be defended, and the order in the city gradually calmed down... Only the morale that wanted to return to its previous prosperous state was impossible.

In fact, something happened that night - an officer of Fu Qing's unit believed that Zhao Guan Jia was naturally cold-blooded and let tens of thousands of people be used as bait to escape, so he wanted to take advantage of the chaos to lead his unit to abandon the city and surrender to the Jin people.

Yang Yizhong, who was working hard despite his injuries, discovered the matter and directly captured these people in the military workshop. For this reason, Fu Qing specifically went to Lü Yihao to plead guilty and intercede.

In response, Chancellor Lü Yihao not only promised to intercede, but also publicly rebuked Yang Yizhong for disregarding the overall situation and convicting innocent soldiers based on rumors.

There was a sequel to this matter. The next day, these people really escaped while taking turns on the city. Fu Qing personally came to stop them, but only killed half of them, and finally let a few people escape. After Fu Qing came to plead guilty again, Lü Yihao greatly praised Fu Qing's position and temporarily added Fu Qing as the Deputy Envoy of the Four Walls Defense of Nanyang Prefecture on the spot. As for the escaped rebel soldiers, they did not have a good end... The Jin army, failing to find Zhao Song Guan Jia's figure, learned from these escaped people that Zhao Guan Jia had secretly crossed the border and may have escaped to Xiangyang, and could not help but feel resentful!

The emotionally agitated Wanyan Wushu personally ordered these people to be skinned alive in front of the tent, and then fell into the dilemma that many officials in Nanyang City were expecting... He didn't know whether to immediately send a force south to surround Xiangyang! Or, leave a force to watch Nanyang, and send the main force to Xiangyang? Pursuit... definitely couldn't catch up, right?

And two days passed in this chaotic situation... No one knew where Zhao Guan Jia was, and no one knew whether Zhao Guan Jia was safe.

Here, it must be added that the Yanling-Changshe battlefield is northeast of Nanyang, located right outside the northeast exit of the Nanyang Basin. The straight-line distance from Nanyang to Yanling is about three hundred miles, and the road is extremely flat. When elite cavalrymen are messengers, with two horses per person, if they do not engage in battle or entanglement, and keep changing horses, they can arrive in a day and a half.

But that road was too dangerous. Once the eight hundred cavalry encountered the Jin army, it would be a dead end. Therefore, the road Zhao Jiu chose was the one Du Yan came from, that is, first pass through Zhongyang Mountain to the east, exit the Nanyang Basin, then take Xiping as the axis point, bypass the battlefield where the Jin army might exist, and finally bypass Yancheng to the north and head to Yanling.

With this detour, the actual distance was expanded to more than four hundred miles.

More than four hundred miles, which is about five hundred Chinese miles. Xiahou Yuan once said, "Five hundred in three days", but that refers to the limit of a forced march while maintaining the army's organization and combat effectiveness. In fact, Du Yan, a civil official, rode his horse at all costs and completed this road in only two and a half days.

And Zhao Jiu followed this road. On the afternoon of the first day, he drove away half of the soldiers, changed to two horses per person. On the morning of the second day, he abandoned some soldiers again and selected horses, but he was inevitably a little faster than both Xiahou Yuan and Du Yan.

Of course, not much faster.

On the morning of the twelfth day of the first month, Zhao Guan Jia, whose thighs had grown back their flesh, led a few dazed companions and less than two hundred knights who had fallen behind, to the Song army camp under Yanling City. It had indeed been two and a half days.

But arriving here, the situation ahead was unknown, Zhao Jiu was not in a hurry to enter the camp. Instead, he ordered the entire army to dismount and rest in the open space south of the camp, using the last bit of dry food and stream water that had been directly filled along the way to replenish their strength.

This move made some of the accompanying knights a little puzzled. Clearly, the Song army's own camp was in front of them, so why not enter the camp to enjoy hot water and hot food?

Not only that, this strange move also attracted the attention of scattered troops and some officers in the camp. Soon, a mixed force of four or five hundred cavalry and infantry actively surged out of the southernmost camp of the camp to investigate.

More than a hundred cavalrymen circled to the west from a distance, and the infantry lined up in front of them, obviously in a defensive and siege posture.

In the past, the soldiers of the Chixin Team, who were actually included in the Imperial Guard system, would inevitably be unbearable, but now they were too tired and lacked the strength to even scold.

After a while, the white-faced general in the lead probably realized the fatigue of this multi-horse Chixin Team cavalry, so he relaxed a little, held his spear and reined in his horse to ask:

"Which family's troops are you? Where did you come from?"

"We are the Imperial Guards, from Nanyang City."

Zhao Jiu swallowed a mouthful of water, sent away the dry fried noodles in his throat, but under the gaze of Liu Yan and others, he tried his best to raise his voice in response... After running for two consecutive days and nights, even though he had tried hard to conceal his fatigue, Zhao Jiu found it difficult to conceal the fact that his voice was slightly hoarse. "I am Fan Zongyin, a drafter in the Imperial Secretariat, and next to me is Feng Daguan, a eunuch of the Inner Attendants Bureau, here to announce an imperial decree in Yanling."

The general first noticed Lan Gui next to Zhao Jiu, and then saw the treatment of this unit with multiple horses per person and the fine armor and weapons carried on the war horses. Then he looked at the few scholars who, although exhausted, could not hide their superior aura, and immediately believed sixty percent of it.

However, this person was always meticulous, so he couldn't help but ask again: "Since you are imperial envoys, why don't you directly show your seals of office and enter the camp, and rest before entering Yanling City, but eat dry food here?"

In response, Zhao Jiu answered half-truthfully and succinctly: "After rushing day and night, we are covered in dust, so we want to rest for a while, change into official robes, and then enter, so as not to disgrace the majesty of the imperial family."

The general heard this, and believed eighty percent in his heart, so he dismounted and stepped forward, cupping his hands and saluting, first addressing Zhao Jiu as "Drafter" and Lan Gui as "Daguan". Just as he was about to say more, Zhao Jiu interrupted him and asked:

"Who are you, what official position do you hold? Who is your subordinate?"

The white-faced general did not dare to be negligent, and immediately bowed his head and replied: "Li Kui of Jingdong, currently a commander under Yue Zhenfu."

Zhao Jiu was slightly stunned: "I do remember your name... I vaguely remember that you were from Yishui, and you were a military bandit in Mizhou? Now you are under Yue Fei?"

"That's right." Hearing this, the man had no more doubts, and immediately bowed his head in response. "Let me tell you, Drafter and Daguan, Mizhou was taken by Li Cheng. I lost my foundation, and I didn't want to surrender to the Jin people, so I first went to Zhang Zhenfu..."

"Don't talk about that." Hearing that he was a subordinate of Yue Fei, and someone he had noticed because of his name, Zhao Jiu no longer hesitated, but immediately got up and interrupted him. "I will enter your camp to rest. You go and find Yue Fei immediately. There is an imperial decree for him!"

Li Kui couldn't wait for this... You must know that if he was really an envoy from Nanyang, and knew his name, then entering his camp would be for nothing a good sale; and even if there was something wrong, two hundred cavalry entered his camp and could not make waves again... So he immediately agreed without even checking the documents and seals, and directly escorted Zhao Jiu and his party into the southernmost camp.

It is said that, after a while, Li Kui gave up his central army tent, made some arrangements and instructions, and went to call someone. Zhao Jiu and others immediately put on armor, washed their faces, and changed their clothes in the camp.

After waiting for a while, Liu Yan and others finished putting on their armor, and Hu Yin, Lin Jingmo and others also washed up. Zhao Guan Jia even put on the red robe and gold belt that Lan Gui had worked so hard to bring all the way, put on the hard-winged hat, and sat upright behind the table and opened the tent door wide, but he didn't let Wan Qixi hang the Jin Wu banner outside the tent... It can only be said that it was rare that the hard-winged hat was not broken after all the bumps, otherwise he would have to meet the upcoming person with his head bare.

At noon, as a burst of hoofbeats stopped outside the gate, a general led dozens of guards to quickly enter the camp. When they reached the front of the central army tent, they were first stunned by Liu Yan, who was standing silently beside the tent door with his sword.

When they entered the tent, they only glanced at the person behind the table, and without hesitation bowed their heads and kowtowed, calling out "Guan Jia", startling Li Kui and others who were following him to quickly kowtow as well.

After a long time, Zhao Jiu, who was caught off guard behind the table, finally realized: "Did Duke Yue see me in Nanjing?"

"Reporting to Guan Jia, that's right." The general in the lead below did not raise his head and immediately replied.

Hearing this conversation, Li Kui and others, who had completely woken up, were almost terrified and wanted to raise their heads to see what was going on, but instead buried them deeper.

"Get up and raise your head." But at this time, who cared about Li Kui? Zhao Jiu took a deep breath and spoke directly.

Yue Fei did not say much when he heard this, and immediately led the people who had been following him to get up, and then faced the person behind the table and stood with their hands clasped.

Unexpectedly, when the other party stood up, Zhao Jiu calmed down instead, but remained silent for a moment... It is said that, seeing the real person and looking at him, Zhao Jiu suddenly realized that the object he had been jealous of was not the person in front of him at all, because the object of his jealousy for a long time, or the strange obsession that had always existed in his heart, was not a person! It was a statue that was destined not to appear again in this space and time!

But the man in front of him, who was completely different from the statue and could be said to have an ordinary appearance, was a living person, a top general of this era who could become his reliance like Han Shizhong. He had no reason to be jealous of the other party. On the contrary, only by cooperating sincerely with this person could he turn the tide.

"It's best that Pengju recognizes me." After suddenly understanding everything in his heart, Zhao Jiu, sitting upright behind the table, said calmly in a language that was so bland that he himself found it unbelievable. "I only come to ask you a few things... How has Du Chong been these past few days? Has he looked for Du Yan?"

"Four days ago, Deputy Commander Du sent people out of the city to various camps to look for Du Jiyi. He looked for him for two consecutive days. After finding nothing, he stopped looking and instead completely closed his doors and refused to see anyone..."

"Can you enter the city?"

"...Yes!"

"How many troops do you directly control?"

"Twenty thousand!"

"How many troops are there in the entire army?"

"More than eighty thousand!"

"How long can the food and grass last?"

"Ten days..."

"I want to win this battle, is it possible?" Zhao Jiu continued to sit still, his tone as usual.

Yue Fei was stunned for a moment, then narrowed his eyes and paused for a moment before responding sternly: "Yes!"

"Lead the troops and follow me into the city!" Zhao Jiu got up without the slightest hesitation.

ps: Thanks to the bald monk for the 58th Moe and Anmiao girl's re-Moe... I'm ashamed.