The Jin army retreating south from Yingzhou did not panic at all.
Because before the last battle of the Hundred Regiments in Yangcheng to defend the village, they were chased by the Khitan cavalry in the same way, running all the way south, and fighting the Khitan army all the way.
This time it was so similar. In the minds of the Jin soldiers, this was not about fearing the enemy and retreating south, but a bit like luring the enemy deeper.
The only one was Du Chongwei, who was really frightened. Everyone could see that this was Yelu Deguang's plan against the Jin army, which was to lure them north.
This coward actually doesn't dare to fight Yelu Deguang at all.
But at the same time, the pursuing Liao army was not too determined, because the Jin army's move to withdraw south without engaging in battle also reminded the Liao army of their last disastrous defeat.
Therefore, the Jin army did not face much threat when retreating south this time. The only fighting that broke out between the two sides was the repeated entanglement between the small number of Khitan pursuit vanguards and the Jin army's rear group.
Today you caught up with me and found a flaw, killing dozens of my people.
I will ambush you tomorrow and kill dozens of your people.
For both Shanxi and Liao, who had about 80,000 soldiers, such losses could be considered almost non-existent.
However, the entanglement of such a small group of troops led to an unexpected birth.
That is, the Liao army's pursuit team consisted of dozens of people, and there was no way they could get close to the large Jin army.
Therefore, they could not accurately judge whether the main force of the Jin army would go south directly to Wuqiang in Jizhou? Or retreat along the established route from Dingzhou to Hengzhou?
In the end, for reasons of safety, Yelu Deguang decided to advance along Dingzhou and Hengzhou.
Because the Khitan people always went this way when they went south many times, and because they were familiar with the geography, even if they couldn't fight and had to run away, they were more familiar with the roads.
But in fact, Yelu Deguang's idea was that even if the Jin army did not go to Dingzhou and Hengzhou, he could occupy these two states to confront the Jin army.
Because these two states were severely harmed by Du Chongwei, the local residents treated the Liao and Jin armies equally and wished they would be finished soon.
Therefore, after taking these two states, as long as they do not continue to burn and kill them, they will not strongly oppose the Khitan occupation, and the Liao army will be able to obtain a relatively stable rear area.
Even I, the Camel God of War, am afraid! If we lose again, all our capital will be lost.
However, Yelu Deguang had been unlucky several times in a row, so it was time for him to turn around.
After Du Chongwei withdrew his troops to Wuqiang, Shenzhou, he got rid of the Liao army's pursuit. He was preparing to continue to retreat south and wait and see.
Coincidentally, at this time, Zhang Yanze, the military commander of the Yiwu Army who had been mopping up the Khitan cavalry in Shenzhou, also arrived in Wuqiang.
Zhang Yanze had recently been violently attacking the Khitan cavalry in the Hebei provinces. He was not as fearful as Du Chongwei, so he immediately entered the camp to meet Du Chongwei.
At this time, Du Chongwei was packing his armor, and Zhang Yanze quickly stopped him.
"If you want to retreat south, you will have to go to Beizhou and Xiangzhou. This will lead to the corruption of Hebei again.
The emperor has even handed over the guards of the Forbidden Palace to the Duke. If he still retreats to the bank of the river, won't he be afraid of the emperor's reprimand?"
Du Chongwei was right. When Shi Chonggui went out to fight, he could ask him to regain Yanyun.
Even after taking ten thousand steps back, Yan Yun failed to recover. It was Zhao Yanshou and Liu Yanzuo who pretended to surrender, but Du Zhongwei was able to retreat unscathed. To say the least, it was without merit or fault.
But if he retreated to the Yellow River, his sin would be serious. If Shi Chonggui sent an angel to rebuke him, he would not be able to escape the blame.
Seeing Du Chongwei's heart move, Zhang Yanze immediately continued to persuade: "Now that the two states of Ding and Heng are in my hands, the captive cavalry is chasing us southward, and is expected to be between the two states of Shen and Mo.
Why don't we wait west to Hengzhou, gather the troops, and then go north from Hengzhou to Dingzhou to cut off the retreat of the captive cavalry.
When the captives hear this, they will be frightened and return north. We will wait for the hard work, and we will definitely win a great victory."
Well, actually this plan is still feasible.
It is entirely possible to replace the Liang army of King Zhang Tian. Their military discipline is strict and their mobility is not inferior to that of the Khitans.
If the Khitan army were between Shenzhou and Mozhou, they could be cut off by the Liang army and then intercepted and killed.
However, although the Jin army had high morale and high combat effectiveness, its military discipline had been chaotic for a long time, and soldiers and generals came from all over the place, making it difficult to dispatch them.
More importantly, the Jin army was dominated by infantry, and the infantry relied on cavalry for cover, so it was impossible to maneuver at such a high speed.
Zhang Yanze actually knew this very well, but he was the military envoy of the Dingzhou Rebel Army and was afraid that the Khitans would go and surround him in Dingzhou, where his family was all.
If the army can be allowed to march west to Ding and Hengyi, it can not only attract the main force of the Khitan, but also protect his family.
Du Chongwei also knew something about military affairs, and he knew that Zhang Yanze's method had high requirements for soldiers.
But after a little hesitation, Du Chongwei immediately agreed.
Because his biggest need now is not to retreat south again, lest he be punished by Shi Chonggui.
If we bring the army to Hengzhou and rely on the fortified city of Hengzhou, we might be able to win another great victory like the one at Bai Tuanwei Village.
So, Du Chongwei immediately summoned the generals for discussion. After the generals understood Du Chongwei's thoughts, they all felt that it didn't matter.
They even thought that a decisive battle with the Khitans in Wuqiang would be a good idea.
Since you, Du Chongwei, are the coach and want to go to Hengzhou for a decisive battle, then go to Hengzhou.
However, among the generals, three people still felt that there was a problem.
The first is Fu Yanqing. He has extreme distrust of Du Chongwei's military capabilities. He feels that it is such a child's play to go west, and he strongly disagrees.
If nothing else, the consumption and transportation of military rations are more difficult than retreating south or defending on the spot.
The second is Gao Xingzhou. He did not participate in the battle at Bai Tuanwei Village in Yangcheng, so he had to be more clear-headed and did not look down upon the Khitans too much.
Moreover, Gao Xingzhou felt that the battle of Bai Tuanwei Village in Yangcheng could not be replicated, because the reason why the Khitans were defeated so miserably was actually Yelu Deguang's command error, which was a big problem.
In this kind of national war, you can't always rely on the enemy coach's mistakes.
The third person was Wang Zhou, but the problem he felt was neither that he looked down on Du Chongwei's military ability nor that he did not despise the Khitan.
Rather, he felt that by rushing westward, the Hengzhou garrison was unprepared and had no food supplies, so it should not go rashly.
Although Du Chongwei avoided war and was a little jealous of Yelu Deguang, his personality was not that of a submissive person.
This person may have some mental bipolar disorder.
On the one hand, he is timid, and on the other hand, he is manic and irritable.
Du Chongwei had different reactions to the three people who raised objections.
Although Fu Yanqing was polite to others and kind to his subordinates, deep down he still had the arrogance of a warrior and a veteran general.
He usually looked down on Du Chongwei, and Du Chongwei had long disliked him.
Seeing Fu Yanqing's objections, Du Chongwei was furious. As the commander of the camp deployment in the north, he removed Fu Yanqing from his position as commander of the right wing and drove him to the south to garrison in Hengshui, Jizhou.
The terrain around Hengshui is slightly undulating, and there are many low hills and depressions within the territory, which can hinder the movements of the Khitan cavalry to a certain extent.
Du Chongwei rushed Fu Yanqing to Hengshui and ordered him to collect grain and grass. The disasters in Jizhou in the past few years have been light, and he can still collect some things.
Second, in case the Khitan army did not go to Hengzhou, Fu Yanqing could play a role in Hengshui as a barrier to Beizhou, Yedu and Chanzhou, the important towns on the north bank of the Yellow River.
Du Chongwei was much kinder to Gao Xingzhou, because at the beginning of this year, Gao Xingzhou's second daughter E Niang married Du Chongwei's son Du Hongsui. Of course, Du Chongwei would treat his in-laws with courtesy.
Hearing that Gao Xingzhou was worried that the army could not defeat the Khitans, Li Shouzhen and the other generals laughed. Du Chongwei thought that Gao Xingzhou almost died at the hands of the Khitans last time and was afraid of the Khitans.
He could understand this very well, because Du Chongwei himself suffered a stress reaction from the Khitan people under Jinyang City.
For a time, the more Du Chongwei saw this in-laws, the more satisfied he became, and he felt a sense of sympathy for them.
So he made an exception and ordered Gao Xingzhou to lead his troops to retreat to Yedu to supervise food supplies for the army.
As for Wang Zhou's concerns, Du Chongwei agreed very much. He allocated a thousand troops and horses to Wang Zhou and ordered him to be the vanguard of the army and go to Hengzhou to set up defenses in advance.
Sometimes, in war, there will be some amazing coincidences that cannot be explained, and this is it.
Shi Chonggui, Du Chongwei, Feng Yu and others finally received their retribution at this moment.
Both Shanxi and Liao did not know each other, so they chose the road to Hengzhou at the same time.
However, compared to the Liao army, the Jin army was even more unlucky.
Since Fu Yanqing and Gao Xing were about to head south on Tuesday, and Du Chongwei broke camp and headed west, it was already October in Hebei and it started to rain again.
In that month, there were floods and rain for more than twenty days. Du Chongwei led his army in the mud and marched westward with great difficulty. The soldiers and generals complained.
In order to supply the needs of the army in the prefectures and counties along the way, the officials asked the residents to tear down the wood for cooking and file the mats to make fodder for the cattle and horses.
At the end of October, the weather just cleared up, and 70,000 Jin troops arrived at the Zhongdu Bridge on the Hutuo River. This bridge is an important passage in and out of Hengzhou.
However, when they arrived to take command here, the Jin army discovered that the Khitan troops had arrived earlier than them and had already surrounded Hengzhou and occupied the Zhongdu Bridge.
Zhang Yanze was extremely frightened when he saw the Khitans capturing Zhongdu Bridge on the east bank of the river.
He was not only worried that the Khitan army had captured Dingzhou, but also worried about Du Chongwei's criticism.
Therefore, Zhang Yanze, who was eager to achieve success, directly led more than 4,000 men from his headquarters to storm Zhongdu Bridge without waiting for the army to be deployed.
The Khitan stationed at Zhongdu Bridge was Gao Song, who killed Liang Hanzhang.
Both armies are elite, one has never experienced the disastrous defeat at Bai Tuanwei Village, and the other is extremely anxious and wants to capture the Zhongdu Bridge immediately.
A bloody battle begins in an instant.
Not long into the battle, the Khitans encountered trouble on the Zhongdu Bridge because they could not take advantage of the cavalry on the bridge, forcing them to fight on foot, so they were very passive.
Zhang Yanze took the opportunity to take the armored heavy infantry as the vanguard, and then sent his crossbowmen to the river, wading through the water to shoot at the Khitan soldiers and horses.
Immediately gaining the upper hand, Zhang Yanze led his troops to take control of Zhongdu Bridge within two-quarters of an hour of the start of the battle.
It was a pity that he attacked too quickly. After he captured the Zhongdu Bridge, most of the Jin army had not yet reached the river bank, and Du Chongwei was unable to provide much reinforcements to Zhang Yanze.
Yelu Deguang, who was near Zhongdu Bridge, heard about it and personally sent fresh troops to support Gaosong. The Liao army that reached the bridgehead once numbered tens of thousands.
At this time, Zhang Yanze's Jin army had exhausted their crossbows and armored men and could not defend the occupied Zhongdu Bridge, so they were driven back to the east bank by the Khitans.
Immediately afterwards, Yelu Deguang personally rushed to Zhongdu Bridge to guard against the Jin army.
After two hours of bloody fighting, Gao Song, who was almost defeated by the Jin army, also realized that it was impossible for the Khitan troops to win the Jin army in an infantry battle.
He then suggested that Yelu Deguang simply burn the Zhongdu Bridge, and then use the advantage of the cavalry to find a shallow place to cross the river upstream to cut off the Jin army's retreat.
Yelu Deguang was deeply convinced and immediately ordered people to burn down the Zhongdu Bridge.
After the fire at Zhongdu Bridge was almost extinguished, Du Chongwei finally arrived, but it was of no use.
The two sides of Shanxi and Liao Dynasty then faced off across the Zhongdu Bridge.
This chapter has been completed!