Ma Huaide and Li Weixian stood at the top of the city, watching the war under the city, anxious. Yesterday, the Khitan food and grass arrived, and today it was a large-scale attack, which was really not waiting for a moment. With the help of the iron cavalry, the Song army had a very difficult time to resist. If Meng Xuejiao had not commanded properly, he would have to take all the troops into the city and defend Ganning Juncheng to the death.

Putting down the telescope, Ma Huaide said: "Taiwei, have all the soldiers and horses in your place been transferred?"

Li Weixian said: "Of course, all of them have been transferred. Now I am the only one with more than 10,000 people, in the city."

Ma Huaide pondered for a moment and said, "Or, all the more than 10,000 people should be sent out. The Meng Party outside has a strong command and can be all under his command. Looking at the Khitans, they will not stop for a while."

Li Weixian said: "As soon as the commander of the Grand Marshal!"

After saying that, he asked himself to order his personal soldiers and ordered the army in the city to leave the city and belong to Meng Xuejue. The more than 10,000 people were directly commanded by Li Weixian and did not belong to the divisions. His troops were already more than Ma Huaide.

Shortly after the army left the city, the Khitan attacked again. They saw that Meng Xuejiao's troops were very strong and difficult to break through. They changed direction and attacked the flanks of Xie Chi command. However, Meng Xuejiao's command was effective and rescued quickly, but he was still in a hard battle.

Until the evening, when the sun sets on the mountain, the Khitans finally stopped attacking and retreated to the barracks. The Song army gathered their troops and seized time to rectify. Ma Huaide and Li Weixian left the city to visit the soldiers participating in the war.

The Hejian Prefecture Commander, Du Zhongxiao, held Ma Huaide's official document in his hand, looked out the window and didn't speak for a long time.

Liu Jianji came in from outside and said with his hands: "Taiwei, our entire army has been assembled. We just waited for the military order and headed to the Ganning Army. Seeing that it was almost noon, if we didn't issue military orders, we wouldn't be able to leave today!"

Du Zhongxiao shook the official document in his hand and said, "Ma Huaide asked for reinforcements and said that it was difficult to defend, but I couldn't make up this determination. Ganning Army City is still there, but the hard battle outside the city has not forced the entire army to enter the city. The Khitan attacked fiercely, and now he has gone, and he must fight to the death. If the Khitans drive away in one battle, it is not a good thing. The Khitans attacked Cangzhou, although they have obtained our artillery, they have not improved much. If they defeated the Khitan army in Ganning Army City, they might have retreated."

Fu Bi said: "If the Khitan retreats, he can let Zhang Ji advance north and block them."

Du Zhongxiao shook his head: "Zhao Zi is still a little bit bad. If you march, you always feel that you can't stop the Khitans. Now is the coldest time of the year, the world is frozen, and the Khitans can go anywhere. Even if we occupy Youzhou, the Khitans can still go from east of Wuqing to Pingzhou. There are all ponds and no cities, so it's hard to stop them."

To the east of Wuqing is the Tianjin area in later generations, but at this time, there was the estuary of several major rivers such as the Yellow River, all of which were swamps and basically not developed. Most of the Khitans were cavalry, and they were really forced to escape if they were hungry for a few days. The purpose of this battle was to encircle and annihilate all the main forces of the Khitan and not leave a gap.

Fu Bi sighed: "You can't watch something happen to the Ganning Army in order to block the Khitans. If the city falls, the saliva of the officials in the court will spray us to death. If the Taiwei is really not good, you can rescue the Ganning Army and advance north."

Du Zhongxiao hesitated for a moment. After a while, he sighed: "This determination is not easy. Now in late December, if you wait for another month, everything will be easy. It is a bit too early. But if you lose the Ganning army, you cannot explain it to the court. What I mean is better to wait until Ma Huaide's troops are defeated by the Khitan army and withdraw all of them back to the city before saving them."

After walking back and forth for a few steps, Du Zhongxiao suddenly turned around and asked Liu Ji on the side: "How many people are there in the Hebei Road Imperial Guard after training?"

Liu Jidao: "There are more than 40,000 people guarding the cities everywhere. There were 300,000 imperial guards on the Hebei Road. After the training, only 130,000 people were willing to continue to join the army. The rest were all chosen to be decommissioned, or they were old and weak."

Du Zhongxiao said decisively: "I ordered all the imperial guards trained in various places to be sent to the Ganning army. Now the Ganning army is 80,000, with fewer people than the Khitans, and it is really difficult to fight. If there are more than tens of thousands of soldiers, it will be much easier to fight against the Khitans."

Liu Ji Yingnuo, seeing that Fu Bi on the side did not speak, he went to order.

Du Zhongxiao said to the soldiers on the side again: "Go and invite Zhao Zi over."

Soon, Zhao Zi came in and saluted several people.

Du Zhongxiao said: "Outside the Ganning Army, there is a fierce battle with the Khitan. According to Ma Huaide's report, the battle has been going on every day. More than 20,000 people have been lost there, and three generals have died in battle. However, some generals have made many military achievements and have properly commanded them to barely block the Khitan army. You immediately order Ma Huaide to report military information every day, and soldiers who have suffered casualties should do a good job in the aftermath. Those who have made meritorious service should report it immediately."

Zhao Zi crossed his hands and said, "Taiwei, what should the soldiers who have made meritorious service come here?"

Du Zhongxiao said: "Most of the imperial guards on Hebei Road were taught by the military academy of Hejian Prefecture. The military academy only had one year, and the time was too short to select suitable officers. The battlefield was the examination room. If you fight well, you should immediately promote them and fill in the missing positions as soon as possible. It's just a pity that some commoners, staff officers, and so on, are not easy to choose on the battlefield. But the military command is the most obvious."

Zhao Zi nodded: "Using the battlefield as the examination room is a way. Hebei Road's imperial guards should be able to deal with more than a dozen Khitans. To be honest, if the number of people is not much different, he can't beat the Khitans, and the imperial guards are too weak."

Du Zhongxiao nodded: "Yes. But the lack of imperial guards on Hebei Road always makes people feel worried. Forget about the entire battle situation, this time I can only rely on themselves. If they survive, they will be the strong army in the world and cannot survive-"

Du Zhongxiao shook his head. If he couldn't stand it, the future imperial guards probably had nothing to do with the imperial guards on Hebei Road. Since the middle and late Tang Dynasty and even earlier, Hebei Road has been a strong military area, which greatly influenced Chinese history. After this war, many things were about to change.

Liu Ji came back and said to Du Zhongxiao: "The Taiwei, the imperial guards from all over the Hebei Road, are still 48,000. Except for some places with inconvenient transportation, all the imperial guards in other areas gathered together and drove to the Ganning Army in batches. Within two days, 15,000 people arrived there. Within ten days, all people could arrive. In this way, there were a total of 150,000 troops in the Ganning Army. Such heavy troops were enough to guard the local safety."

Du Zhongxiao shook his head: "You can't count this way. Now there are many casualties every day, and there are not so many people who can actually fight on the battlefield. In short, how to fight depends on the generals of Hebei Road."

Yi Fu Bi on the side said, "Even if the troops are increased, Liu Jianji's army must be prepared at any time and can go to rescue. In this war, the Khitan has not broken a city, and the Ganning army is really lost and cannot explain it to the court."
Chapter completed!