Guo Shao returned to Waqiao Pass (Xiongzhou) and the Beihu Jie Army left camp.

He first summoned more than 40 generals including the commander of the army, the commander and other military generals to discuss matters. The tent of the army camp was a felt-topped camp, which was built with wood and cloth around it, and was covered with felt grass as a straw raincoat, which was waterproofed quite well.

The generals arrived one after another, and habitually removed the weapons and placed them on the shelf at the door. Soon, it was like a weapon exhibition. Various swords and swords were placed in a variety of protective weapons.

After everyone was all here, Guo Shao brought his personal guards to the account. The personal soldiers did not go in and directly put martial law around them. They did not allow the irrelevant soldiers to approach.

"Meet Marshal Guo (lord)..." A group of people clasped their fists and saluted in a mess. There were so many people coming at once, and there was no place to sit, so everyone had to stand.

After a while, several personal soldiers came up with a simple shelf, with a large picture hanging on it, and roughly outlined a map-like thing with very thick lines. This "picture" was made by Guo Shao himself. The drawing was a little ugly, but it was very simple.

Guo Shao took off his helmet and put it on the table. It was mid-April and the weather was a little hot. He tied his long hair around his head and covered his helmet with a little stuffy. When he turned around, everyone's noise stopped one after another, and many eyes looked at Guo Shao. He was used to such a scene now.

So he thought for a moment, then pointed to the map and said casually: "It is said that after the large reinforcements of Liao Kingdom have arrived in Yanshan, it is probably in this place; our army is currently in the north and south of Henan...

The transfer of the Hujie Army's left wing was to cross the Juma River and arrive in Zhuozhou and Gu'an. The two cities were in a corner and stood on standby; the infantry military power would be handed over to the commander of the Left wing commander Qi Tingxun. Once he arrived in Zhuozhou, Qi Tingxun was responsible for commanding the six armies."

Someone asked immediately: "Marrior Guo is going to step down as the commander of the left wing?"

Guo Shao said: "I have new military affairs. I will lead the troops from all over the country to follow the main force and advance towards Youzhou. The generals under my command include the left-wing horse soldiers of the Hujie Army, the Dingzhou Army, and tens of thousands of soldiers of the city. I don't know much about which places they are.

He turned to look at the tall Qi Tingxun: "Send someone to move the dozen or so big boxes placed in Qizhou to Zhuozhou. Do you know what I said?"

Qi Tingxun clasped his fists and said, "I understand."

Guo Shao said again: "Li Chuyun, Luo Yanhuan, Dong Zunxun, Deng Fei, and the four generals led the cavalry of our headquarters to follow me; others followed Qi Tingxun, the commander of the Left Xiang Duan. The commander of each commander also followed the army, Zuo You and Luo Mengzi followed me; Lu Chengyong served as deputy commander and stayed in the Left Xiang Shufu with Zhou Duan. Everyone understands where they are going?"

Everyone agreed and discussed for a while. Guo Shao immediately ordered the generals to return to the camp and prepare to set off.

The next morning, the army crossed the Juma River through the floating bridge. Most of the time the war was marching, and everyone got used to it. It has been more than a month since the Northern Expedition, and everyone has walked hundreds of miles and occupied a lot of places, but they have not really fought.

The river water is clear, and the fields on both sides are green at the turn of spring and summer. Many of the land here are deserted and covered with grass, but they still look full of vitality. At this time, the scenery is as if it is not in the same place compared to the snowy winter.

Guo Shao rode his horse to the river bank, stood under a tree and watched the army moving in a row and a large number of mule and horse carriage frames. When he looked back, he saw Li Chuyun beside him, and remembered Li Chuyun's words at the end of last year, and couldn't help but say, "Brother Li is really right."

It had been several months since those words were said, and almost all the generals had forgotten them. When they heard Guo Shao mention them, everyone began to think about it one after another.

Li Chuyun bowed his hand immediately, smiling without saying a word.

Seeing this, Guo Shao suddenly felt that he was becoming more and more general... Guo Shao only remembered that Chai Rong got sick during the Northern Expedition in history and had to stop the army, which caused regret; but he couldn't remember what the process was going on. On the contrary, Li Chuyun's words at the end of last year, and now he looked at it, it seemed that he had predicted the future.

"The Zhou army fought until the south of the Jima River, and only once a small-scale conflict occurred. Sure enough, they surrendered all the way." Guo Shao said, "After crossing the Jima River, the reinforcements of the Liao Kingdom were almost here. The important thing about this battle was to fight the main force of the Liao Kingdom, and to reconcile with what General Li said. I admire him!"

After hearing this, Li Chuyun said, "Youyun, the old land of the Bohai Kingdom, two places are important places for the Khitans to obtain property. There is no reason why the Liao Kingdom does not fail to save it. The relatives and brothers of the people occasionally fight or even fight, but which family is willing to hand over half of the fertile land estates to outsiders? They have to fight to the death."

Guo Shao asked again: "Zhou, Liao won and lost in this battle, Brother Li will predict how?"

Li Chuyun hesitated and said calmly: "I think it's difficult to win."

Guo Shao was thinking, and suddenly reported that a messenger from Daming Mansion had come to the army. He sent the order to bring the people up and saw that it was a man wearing a robe and a few followers. After seeing him, he actually sent a message to him.

Fu Ermei's letter. Guo Shao called his followers to receive the messenger first, and rode his horse to the side without hesitation, then opened the letter to see it. The letters of this era are very difficult and costly. He specially sent people to travel hundreds of miles to deliver letters. Otherwise, he could only find an acquaintance to carry them, and the loss could be very likely.

The beginning of the letter looks very plain. Fu Ermei said that there is a position of official service in the gate of the royal palace, which is a place to receive letters, official documents, and prayers. Every few days she would send someone to ask questions, and for the first time she realized that waiting was so harsh. If she found out that there was a letter from her husband, she would be happy for a long time. For a long time, she could only read his letter carefully to express her longing.

When Guo Shao saw this, he suddenly felt a little anxious and wanted to win the Khitan early and go back to Tokyo.

But he speculated that Chai Rong's body might not last long and he would not be able to live in peace when he returned. The moment of great changes in history was faintly ahead. This made Guo Shao feel anxious and thought about it, but there was nothing he could do now.

The best choice is to follow the Queen's arrangements.

...

The Hujie Army left wing army arrived in Zhuozhou. At that time, the troops in the front office of the Palace had already gone north. Qi Tingxun then took over the defense of the two cities of Zhuozhou and Gu'an. Guo Shao led more than 2,000 cavalry to advance northward to follow the main cavalry unit of the Zhou army last year.

The water at the Zhuo River Ferry was shallow, and the army waded by the water and easily broke through the Zhuo River. At this time, the Zhou army had no danger to reach Youzhou City in front, and it was flat; the rivers near the city were also shallow, and they could not stop the army at all... The Youzhou Plain was surrounded by mountains on three sides, and the south was a flat plain.

Guo Shao had only two thousand cavalry under his command, and the Dingzhou Army and Zhenjie soldiers had not arrived yet. The vanguard Shi Yanchao led all the troupes in the front office of the palace to approach Youzhou City. The elite cavalry of the central army followed, and Guo Shao and Longjie soldiers were at the end.

Two days after the march, the night of the camping camp, suddenly the central army sent people to come and the emperor summoned various generals to discuss matters. Guo Shao had to bring more than a dozen followers to catch up with the central army.

The fire was bright outside the tent, and it was dark when Guo Shao arrived at the place. Wang Pu and more than a dozen generals and the emperor were present, and he immediately said: "Shi Yanchao reported that the Liao army had arrived at Juyongguan, near Deshengkou (northwest of Youzhou City)."

Chai Rong said at this time: "You all think you can advance to the army, let's talk about it first."

The generals looked at each other, and Chai Rong called Zhang Yongde and said, "General Zhang, tell me."

Zhang Yongde stepped forward and bent down and said, "Since the Liao army has set out to fight, I will rescue Youzhou. I have nothing to do... Since the Great Zhou has occupied all the seventeen counties on the south bank of the Juma River, it has made contributions to the army. There is no need to rush to Youzhou now, but Xu Tuzhi..."

"There is no need to say what you advise me to withdraw my troops." Chai Rong said decisively.

At this moment, Zhao Kuangyin stood up and said, "Since the Liao army has reached the northwest of Youzhou, why didn't they come straight to rescue Youzhou City? Maybe it was deliberately luring our army to the city and luring the enemy into the depths. Now that the reinforcements of the Liao people have arrived, our army might as well watch the south first, wait for the main force of the Liao army to move south, and then wait for the opportunity to fight to the decisive battle."

Several generals immediately agreed with Zhao Kuangyin's plan and were unwilling to go deep into the city of Youzhou.

Wang Pu also said: "After the troops approach the city, our dynasty will divide the troops to siege the city and disperse the troops. If we can wait for the Liao army to move south, we can avoid any worries."

Someone also said: "The Liao army has been reinforced from afar. When they first arrived in Youzhou, they did not attack at this time; they would not go south easily, so they would have to delay rest. Now they are forcing Youzhou City, which can force the Liao people to fight in a hurry. If the Liao army still retreats to protect the Deshengkou Pass, our dynasty can take the opportunity to attack the city; once they occupy Youzhou City, they will have a foothold."

"Guo Shao, where is Guo Shao?" Chai Rong suddenly shouted.

Whenever he talks about siege, the emperor will think of Guo Shao, who often doesn't say a word. Guo Shao hurriedly stepped forward and said, "I'm here."

Chai Rong asked, "When will you be able to go to Youzhou?"

Guo Shao gritted his teeth and said, "I sent merchants who pretended to be disguised to Youzhou to investigate the situation. Youzhou has a general manager of the South Court. The South Court has 18,000 Khitan cavalry, and the Xi soldiers and infantry are unknown. It is possible that my subordinates will be unable to siege the city... Even if the city wall is blown up, it will take about a month; you must first dig tunnels around to find a suitable explosion point. Because in some places, there is no underground water seepage, gunpowder cannot be placed."

He couldn't help but enter the honest advice: "To siege Youzhou, you must also transfer the elite infantry troops to build several layers of fortifications outside the city, and use a large army to surround them."

Chai Rong thought for a long time and decided to set up camp in the south of the city and not to attack Youzhou City for the time being. He did not issue an order to transfer the subsequent elite infantry troops.

It can be seen that Chai Rong and Zhao Kuangyin have a relatively consistent view on the strategy of attacking Youzhou, both focusing on the reinforcements of the Liao Kingdom and looking for opportunities to fight in field annihilation of the enemy.

Guo Shao has participated in high-level court discussions many times, and has probably figured out the military ideas of Chai Rong and other generals: he usually does not rely on strategies, but wants to find an opportunity to set up a counter-attack.

However, when fighting, there are always some external conditions that affect the outcome, terrain, morale, physical strength, number of people, etc. So the so-called tactic is to try to lead external conditions to the side that is beneficial to oneself... In the end, it is to compete for strength.
Chapter completed!