The Northern Expedition Army was divided into three groups. On the Western Route Army, Emperor Xuande appointed Pan Xun, the governor of Zhongwu Army, as the commander, Wang Sheng, the governor of Daizhou, as the military supervisor, and also appointed veteran general Huwei General Li Jizong as the deputy general. The three led 50,000 troops. Li Jizong was the grandfather of Princess Gong Li Mulan, so Prince Gong and his wife also took errands on the Western Route Army.

In early February, the army set out and headed north all the way, successfully captured several small towns, and finally arrived outside the city of Huanzhou in the late month. It was one of the fourteen Youyun prefectures occupied by the Liao Kingdom.

The Liao army guards were closed and the city was not out. Wang Sheng, the army supervisor, ordered Li Jizong to lead troops to attack the city. When the siege strategy was agreed, King Gong listened on the side. There were four city gates in total. Seeing that the three city gates were all separated, King Gong was anxious and knocked on the north gate of the sand table with his big hand and whispered loudly: "Leave the north gate to me!"

Wang Sheng glanced at him and turned his gaze to coach Pan Xun. Pan Xun lowered his eyes and looked at the sand table without saying a word. That was the prince, who was spoiled in the capital, even though he had learned a good kung fu. He had never been to the battlefield before and had never experienced the bloody storm of the battlefield. He sent King Gong to attack the city. If he was defeated, he would say that if he had any problems, who would explain to the emperor when he went back? If he didn't send him, he would offend King Gong again.

"General Li, what do you think?" Pan Xun refused to respond, and Wang Sheng kicked the ball to Li Jizong.

Before Li Jizong could speak, King Gong first grinned at him flatteringly: "Grandfather, please send me to the North Gate! The father asked me to come out for training. You have never allowed me to send troops. How can I experience it?" After that, he also brought help to himself and asked the princess: "Mulan has long been itchy, right?"

Li Mulan ignored him, but when her grandfather saw him, the heroic female general also showed a faint begging on her face.

Li Jizong was not a doting child. Although King Gong was a prince, he was also his grandson-in-law. Since he was learning martial arts, how could a general not go to the battlefield? Moreover, the Western Route Army was coming with great momentum, with only 8,000 Liao soldiers in Huanzhou City, which had a great chance of defeat.

"Okay, let the North Gate be handed over to Prince Gong and Princess!" Li Jizong made the decision happily.

King Gong was overjoyed and patted his wife with great spirit. Li Mulan glared at him. The couple walked out of the camp tent side by side and were ready to go. On the way to the north city gate, King Gong thought of something and asked puzzledly: "Grandfather's military achievements are not inferior to those two. Why did the father arrange for his grandfather to be the deputy general?" Seeing that the famous old man had to listen to Wang Sheng and Pan Xun's arrangements, King Gong was really frustrated.

Li Mulan looked ahead without explaining it, but she knew the reason. The Li family has been famous for generations, but her grandfather was a general of the former Han Dynasty. When Emperor Gaozu changed his dynasty and led his troops to attack the former Han Dynasty. It was his grandfather who led his troops to resist and refused to surrender for several months. Emperor Gaozu suffered a lot. Finally, the king of the devastated country in the former Han Dynasty surrendered voluntarily. Emperor Gaozu met his grandfather again, and his grandfather became the general of the Great Zhou Dynasty.

Emperor Gaozu, the emperor treats his grandfather very much, and his grandfather has also made countless military achievements for the Great Zhou Dynasty. However, if it is a surrendered general and the emperor, it is better to use Wang Sheng and others to rest assured?

But my grandfather didn't care. All my grandfather wanted was to serve the country with all his loyalty.

The war broke out, and in a blink of an eye, Huanzhou City was in a bloody battle. The veteran Li Jizong led 20,000 elite troops. In less than two hours, he broke through the city gate and flocked in.

The next day, the good news of the city of Huanzhou was rushed into the capital by eight hundred miles.

Emperor Xuande strode his hands and praised him for being happy.

The Great Zhou started smoothly, and Zhao Heng breathed a sigh of relief. He returned to the royal mansion in the evening, stayed in the front yard for a while, and went to the back yard to accompany the princess' daughter. Since the army set off, he had come so early for the first time. When he looked at the man's happy expression, Song Jianing guessed that there was good news on the front line, and deliberately pretended not to understand and asked: "How can the prince have the leisure to coax Zhao Zhao today?"

Zhao Heng was holding his daughter up and letting her little feet step on his knees to play. He smiled and said, "The Western Front is a great victory, and the Huanzhou City is broken."

Song Jianing looked puzzled, where is Huanzhou City?

When Zhao Heng saw this, he put down his daughter and ordered the maid to get the map.

When Song Jianing was reading "Records of the Grand Historian", he got a map from him. Shuang'er knew where to put it, so he quickly put it on the low table. Song Jianing moved over with his stomach and planned to watch it next to him like before, but this time the couple could no longer speak quietly because there was a little princess at home.

As soon as Shuang'er had finished laying the map, Zhaozhao stood up from his father's arms and lay on the table to pull the map to play. Song Jianing was so scared that he hurriedly covered it.

"You can't pull it, it's broken, my mother cried." Zhao Heng held his daughter's fat hands with one hand and said with a smile.

Zhao Zhao opened her mouth and looked at her mother. Why did she cry if she hurt her mother?

The prince said that, so Song Jianing had to cooperate and pretend to rub his eyes. Anyway, one is her man and the other is a daughter, so he is not afraid of embarrassment.

Zhao Zhaoke couldn't bear to let her favorite mother cry, and was anxious to use her little hands to pull her tears, shaking her head to ensure that she wouldn't pull her.

Song Jianing "smiles and laughs" and kissed his daughter rewardedly.

Zhao Heng silently watched her coax her daughter. When her daughter sat down obediently, Zhao Heng raised his hand to point out the location of Huanzhou City to the princess. He was in a good mood. Prince Shou also said a few more words to the little princess: "Take the Huanzhou City, then take Shuozhou, Yingzhou, Yunzhou, and the northwest four states, and then return to the Central Plains."

Song Jianing looked at the four small places on the map and knew that King Gong and his wife were in the Western Army. She couldn't help asking: "It took only half a month to regain one state, and the remaining three states, wouldn't it be possible to conquer it in two months?" She was born in May. If this were the case, Sister Mulan might be able to rush back to celebrate her second son.

Zhao Heng laughed, it would be simple to marching and fighting in battles.

With his hands holding his daughter, Zhao Heng's eyes fell to the Liao Kingdom in the north. The Liao Kingdom is vast and has a wide area, and it stretches thousands of miles from east to west. This time, the father's army was fighting against Goryeo in the east. It was not time to deal with it yet. Therefore, the two armies of the west and middle routes captured the two states in one breath, but the war had just begun, and no one could be sure what would happen later.

These are very complicated, and Zhao Heng didn't say anything to his princess again.

The capital city received the news from the West Route Army and the Middle Route Army, and the East Route Army also received news.

In the commander's tent, Privy Councilor and Commander Cao Yu leaned against the back of the chair, held the good news in his left hand, and rubbed his forehead irritably with his right hand. During this Northern Expedition, the court sent 200,000 troops, and his Eastern Army occupied 100,000, which was the same as that of him. But the emperor said that his 100,000 was mainly to restrain the main force of the Liao Kingdom, and asked him to march slowly, wait for the west and middle roads to take the eight states on both sides, and then rushed over to join his Eastern Army and attack Youzhou in one fell swoop.

This battle strategy is indeed good, but before he started fighting, he had already made military achievements on the west and middle roads. In the future, the three armies in the attack on Youzhou will be equally divided. When rewarding the merits, wouldn’t his Eastern Army have made the least contribution?

Cao Yu was not very comfortable, and he was not the only generals who were uncomfortable with the Eastern Army. When he heard that the two troops had made contributions, he rushed to the commander's tent and asked Cao Yu to send them to send troops. Seeing that the people were almost there, Cao Yu simply called all the generals under his command to discuss countermeasures.

"Pingzhang, what do you say?" After a discussion, Cao Yu asked Guo Xiao, who was always silent, that Guo Xiao was Guo Boyan's son and Princess Duanhui's son-in-law. Although he was young, Cao Yu did not dare to underestimate this young man.

Guo Xiao looked around and found that all the tent were military seniors who had made military achievements. He was not in this mind, nor did he care whether he won or lost the Northern Expedition. He said calmly: "The last general is only sent by the commander Cao."

The implication is that he will do whatever Cao Yu asked him to do, and he will never object.

Cao Yu nodded. Since no one objected, he stood up and left his seat, walked to the sand table, pondered for a moment, pointed at Zhuozhou in the south of Youzhou City and said, "The emperor ordered us to marches slowly, mainly to wait for the three armies to merge before attacking Youzhou. However, I felt that it would be better to take advantage of the lack of preparations in Liao Kingdom. We should take Zhuozhou and Youzhou first. Wang Sheng and Han Da have only 50,000 troops and horses under him. We have 100,000. Is it better than them?"

Military generals and generals are waiting for meritorious contributions on the battlefield. Only by having military achievements can they stand out. Otherwise, why should he, a person with low military achievements, be the Privy Councilor?

"Okay, let's set off now and catch Youzhou off guard! Haha, that Empress Dowager Xiao is probably hanging with Han Rang at this moment. When the adulterer and tycoon recovers, Youzhou is already ours!"

Cao Yu's proposal was immediately supported by all the generals. The general was rude and took the opportunity to tease the regent of Empress Dowager Xiao, the new widow in Liao Kingdom. Guo Xiao smiled, but his thoughts were transferred to the step-sister in the capital because Empress Dowager Xiao was a widow, and Empress Dowager Xiao was also a widow. There were new men around him. It can be seen that women's hearts are fickle and they will not always care about their ex-husband.

After making a decision, Cao Yu dispatched 90,000 troops to set out in the afternoon of the same day, and drove light chariots and walked slowly, so he left behind for the time being.

The Liao Kingdom, the capital of the capital, received the defeat of the Huanzhou City and the Xincheng City, one after another. Empress Dowager Xiao, who was only 28 years old, frowned slightly with long and long eyebrows, but was not panicked. After reading it twice, Empress Dowager Xiao handed the memorial to Prime Minister Han Rang, and said sadly: "The Great Zhou is coming in a fierce manner, what should we do?"

Liao Prime Minister Han Rang took the memorial, and after reading it, he threw it on the table and said calmly: "The Empress Dowager does not need to panic. I will dispatch troops and support Youzhou. The Iron Cavalry of the Great Liao will run fast and will definitely arrive in Youzhou before the city is broken. Yelu Xiong told me that he expected that the old thief of Xuande would take the opportunity to enter and had already deployed in advance. If the old thief of Xuande comes again, the Dalia will definitely tell him to go but not return."

When talking about Emperor Xuande, Empress Xiao smiled, her eyebrows were clear and her eyes were disdainful: "Have he still arrived? Last time Yelu Xiong sent him two arrows, his courage had already been scared, right?"

Han Rang thought so too.

After teasing Emperor Xuande, Empress Dowager Xiao's expression regained its heavy weight. She left the seat, walked to the high map on the east side, and looked up. As she looked, the burly man hugged her from behind. Empress Dowager Xiao patted his hand and raised his chin towards Youzhou and Zhuozhou, and said slowly: "The Great Zhou soldiers were divided into three groups, but they actually attacked the east and west, but it was indeed the right thing to call Xuande old thief. I really couldn't take action to repel his three groups at the same time. In this way, you can lead my troops to Youzhou. Let's fight back the east route first, and then support Yunzhou and Weizhou."

Han Rang was shocked and asked in disbelief: "You want to fight in person?"

Empress Xiao raised her eyebrows and asked gently, "No?"

Although she is a woman, she dares to look down on the world.

Han Rang loved her the most, and suddenly picked her up and went to the inner room.
Chapter completed!