Do you know: I have a different surname: Wang, uncle Minglan.

Chapter 296 Yelu Renxian at this time is invincible

Zhang Guifen is more open-minded, firstly because she is influenced by traditional concepts;

The second reason is that the man she married was Wei Yuan.

"Besides, for a hero like your uncle, the woman he chooses will not be a simple geisha. She must have extraordinary qualities."

At this point, Zhang Guifen put the letter away and said, "Minglan, I want to eat the pork elbow you made."

Minglan looked at Zhang Guifen in a daze and couldn't help but think a lot in her mind.

Before she married her uncle, she was a woman who dared to love and hate.

When she heard that her uncle had actually gone to a place like Guangyuntai, she wished she could go to Guangyuntai to find her uncle as an unmarried woman.

However, since getting married, my aunt seems to have lost more and more of her "self". No matter what she encounters or what she does, she always puts her uncle first.

For example, my uncle found a geisha and made her pregnant.
It’s not that, with Wei Yuan’s status, he can’t find a concubine.

But no matter what the reason is, Zhang Guifen should be informed in advance.

What about now?
I just wrote a letter to inform you
Thinking of this, Minglan felt a little unfair for Zhang Guifen.

But Wei Yuan is her biological uncle, and it was this uncle who gave her the "fatherly love" that she had lacked since childhood.

Minglan was speaking for Zhang Guifen, but subconsciously, she was always trying to minimize the impact of this incident on her uncle.

After Minglan came back to her senses, she nodded and said, "Okay, I will cook for you today and I will make sure you enjoy a feast."

When Minglan went to the kitchen, Baozhu brought a cup of hot tea and said, "Madam, warm yourself up."

Zhang Guifen sat back on the stool and nodded in response subconsciously.

Baozhu didn't dare to say anything about Wei Yuan's affairs, but just stood quietly behind Zhang Guifen.

After a long time, Zhang Guifen suddenly stood up and called a retainer named "Zhang Da" from the Duke of Yingguo's mansion.

Then, she asked seriously, "Uncle Zhang, my parents have treated you well over the years. There is something I need you to do."

Zhang Danian is nearly fifty years old, with gray hair on his temples, but his eyes are still bright and sharp. At first glance, he looks like a martial artist.
"Please give your orders young lady."

Zhang Guifen has called him Uncle Zhang since he was a child. At first, he didn't dare to hear Zhang Guifen call him that.

To put it nicely, he was a retainer of the Zhang Mansion, but after so many years, he always regarded himself as a servant in the mansion.

Zhang Guifen said bluntly: "The Marquis found a woman named Xie Yuying in Jiangnan. I know very little about these geishas. I would like to trouble you to go to Jiangnan in person and investigate the origin, background, and family history of this woman."

Zhang Ziran could understand who the Marquis she was talking about was.

"Just an investigation?"

Zhang Da asked curiously.

Zhang Guifen said, "To be honest with you, Uncle Zhang, the woman is now pregnant, but I need to understand what is going on."

"If she was not a virgin before she followed the Marquis, I would have to consider it carefully. If so, as the mistress, I should also get to know her better."

After a pause, she said in a deep voice: "If the Marquis knows about this, Uncle Zhang doesn't have to hide it. Just tell the Marquis the truth."

Zhang Da clasped his fists and said, "Please rest assured, young lady."

Nowadays, people in the Duke of England's mansion call Zhang Guifen "Madam" and her mother "Old Madam".

Only Zhang Da still called Zhang Guifen "girl".

After Zhang Da left, Baozhu asked in confusion, "If you don't tell the Marquis in advance, what should I do if the Marquis is unhappy when he finds out that you made such an arrangement?"

Zhang Guifen shook her head and said, "No."

Baozhu didn't dare to ask more.

I just felt that there was no suspicion between the couple and they trusted each other very much.

The same is true.

Zhang Guifen was asking about Xie Yuying not entirely for herself, but mostly for Wei Yuan.

Although, in her heart, Wei Yuan is so perfect.

No matter what, Wei Yuan is still a man.

As a man, there will always be times when you are deceived by women.

Zhang Guifen was worried that Wei Yuan had been deceived by Xie Yuying. If that was true, then there would be no need for Xie Yuying to exist.

Wei Yuan has been an orphan since childhood, and his eldest sister Wei Shuyi entered the Sheng family as a concubine early on.

In Zhang Guifen's opinion, her second sister Wei Ruyi was a carefree person and would definitely not teach Wei Yuan about girl's thoughts.

A man who lacks this important link is easily moved and easily deceived by women.

But now, Wei Yuan has Zhang Guifen.

Anything that the former fails to notice will be filled in by the latter.

Of course, the premise of all this is that the two people must trust each other enough.

Although Wei Yuan did not inform Zhang Guifen in advance about Xie Yuying.

But his deep trust in Zhang Guifen never wavered in the slightest.

The same is true for the latter.
-
After the new year.

In the six major temples of the Zhou Dynasty, this huge machine began to run frantically.

Various places are short of soldiers and food, and have already shown a trend of counterattack.

However, only some experienced generals could see that by the time the war had started, the armies of the Great Zhou had already been defeated.

Early January of the eighth year of Jiayou.

Yelu Renxian led 300,000 lions to attack from Mozhou to the east and captured the Qingzhou area.

As a result, the northern defense system centered on the Baoding Army collapsed.

In the middle of the same month, Yelu Xinxian divided his troops into two groups, one heading straight for Damingfu, while the other continued to stalemate with Xu Changzhi's troops.

Late January of the eighth year of Jiayou.

Yelu Renxian moved around, bypassed Xiongzhou, and passed through Baozhou. He fought to support the enemy, replenished supplies, and then attacked Wangdu.

Daming Prefecture is located southeast of Wangdu.

As the Beijing city of the Great Zhou, it is only a few hundred miles away from Bianliang.

The city of Beijing in modern society is still under the jurisdiction of the Liao people.

At this moment, in the city of Bianjing, when people learned that Yelu Xinxian had actually mobilized a large number of troops to attack Daming Prefecture.

Both Zhao Xi and the officials were a little panicked.

In the imperial palace, all the officials were discussing this matter.

"If Damingfu is taken by the Liao people, our Bianjing city will be defenseless!"

"Who would have thought that the Liao people would advance so quickly?"

"What is Xu Changzhi doing? Didn't he say that he could hold Yelu Xinxian back?"

"How come the Liao people are at the gates of Damingfu in the blink of an eye?"

"."

Although the Chinese New Year has passed, there is still heavy snow in various places.

This heavy snow not only hindered the Liao army's advance, but also put the Zhou army defending the city into a difficult situation.

Xu Changzhi had his own difficulties. He knew that Yelu Xinxian had chosen to divide his troops to fight, but he still had to defend Qizhou.

Because once Qizhou was lost, the entire Jingdong East Road would fall into the hands of the Liao people.

By then, it would be easy for the Liao people to "divide the river and rule" with the Zhou Dynasty. That river was the canal.

Therefore, he just wrote a note and submitted it to the court, stating that Yelu Xinxian's attack on Daming Prefecture might just be a feint.

But the officials didn't believe it, and Zhao Xi didn't believe it either.

The enemy is almost at my doorstep, how could it be just a feint?

When he heard that all officials were constantly accusing Xu Changzhi of being too conservative in warfare, Yelu Xinxian continued to advance westward.

Zhao Xi, who was sitting on the chair, was a little impatient and said in a deep voice:
"Qizhou has not been lost, General Xu is still a hero!"

"Since the Liao Kingdom moved south, they have only taken over some prefectures in East Jingdong Road and East Hebei Road. Why are you so panicked?"

"There are 30,000 troops stationed in Daming Prefecture. The Liao people cannot take it for the time being. Let the garrisons of various prefectures go to support it. If that doesn't work, let General Qin also send troops to defend Daming Prefecture!" In mid-February of the eighth year of Jiayou, Qin Lie ordered his son Qin Zhen to lead an army of 100,000 to return to support Daming Prefecture.

At the same time, troops were dispatched from various important towns and prefectures, and about 400,000 troops gathered in Daming Prefecture.

Qin Zhen was appointed as the commander-in-chief of the Hebei East Route Army, and was given full command of the Damingfu Campaign.

It is known in history as the Battle of Damingfu.

After Zhao Xi personally issued the appointment, he added one more sentence to the officials:
"Tell Qin Zhen that in this battle, I want only one result, to make Yelu Xinxian's 200,000 enemy troops disappear into thin air!"

Yelu Xinxian originally had an army of 300,000. After he captured some prefectures and formed a stable strategic supply line, the Liao Kingdom added another 200,000 troops before the New Year.

In other words, during the Battle of Qizhou after the New Year, Yelu Xinxian had at least 400,000 troops.

Of course, four hundred thousand does not mean exactly four hundred thousand armored soldiers.

Having 400,000 armored soldiers is enough to sweep across the entire Central Plains.

Among the 400,000-strong army, there were no more than 100,000 armored and elite soldiers.

The rest were ordinary soldiers wearing simple armor or cloth armor.

These soldiers were basically recruited temporarily, and some were selected from civilians.

Of course, among the 800,000 imperial guards that Zhao Zhen was so proud of, excluding the redundant soldiers, the real elite troops only numbered 400,000 to 500,000.

The so-called elite refers to soldiers who are fully armored and are basically invulnerable to swords and guns except for blunt weapons on the battlefield.

Each of these soldiers is capable of fighting ten enemies at once.

Yelu Xin first divided his troops into 200,000 to attack Daming Prefecture.

Logically speaking, the situation on Xu Changzhi's side would be easier.

But the opposite is true.

Since his main responsibility was to delay the progress of Yelu Xinxian's attack, and at the same time ensure that the prefectures in Qi and Lu did not fall into the hands of the enemy.

Therefore, his goal is not just to defend the city of Qizhou.

Around the end of the year, Xu Changzhi used 200,000 troops to prevent Yelu Xinxian from advancing an inch, which was extremely rare.

Including the 200,000 troops on Yang Huairen's side, there are also troops from various places.

Adding the troops that the Great Zhou had deployed in the Battle of Damingfu, the total number reached 800,000!
Among them, there are about 300,000 elite imperial guards.

The rest of the troops were recruited from the garrison troops and civilians from all over the place, and most of the soldiers had not even received formal training.

Even so, if the Battle of Damingfu were to suffer a slight defeat, the entire situation would be turned upside down, and the Great Zhou would really be in danger of being destroyed.

When Zhang Fu learned about this, he wrote to Daming Prefecture and advised that defense should still be the priority.

But Han Zhang believed that the 400,000-strong army would cooperate with the original garrison of Daming Prefecture and the 80,000 troops brought by Pan Shu under the order of Yang Huairen.

With an army of 500,000, there is no reason why they cannot defeat Yelu Xinxian's main force.

As long as we win this battle, the Liao army will be defeated.

Then, Liaoxia's plan to move south ended in failure.

But Zhang Fu insisted that Yelu Xin did that first in order to attract all the combat forces of the Great Zhou.

After all, up to now in this war, it seems that the Great Zhou has been losing land and suffering repeated defeats.

But in fact, the land actually taken by the Liao Kingdom was less than one-fifteenth of that of the Great Zhou.

It is still too early to start the theory of national destruction that is circulating among the people.

Moreover, the Liao soldiers did not work hard every time they conquered a place. They just plundered and left after taking it.

In this situation, it will be very easy to regain lost ground.

As long as we make sure no mistakes are made and the battle drags on, we can finally drag it out until the Liao soldiers realize the difficulty and retreat.

There is absolutely no need to launch a large-scale decisive battle at this time.

Even Wei Yuan, who was far away in Jiangnan, had the same idea.

At this time, in Taihu Villa.

Wei Yuan was discussing the battle of Damingfu with Lin Zhaoyuan and others.

Chen Daniu said sincerely: "Brother is really amazing, how did you know that the Liao people were going to attack Damingfu?"

"Now, our Great Zhou has 400,000 to 500,000 troops gathering in Daming Prefecture. It's enough to give Yelu Xinxian a hard time."

Even Lin Zhaoyuan thought so.

No matter how you look at it, Daming Prefecture is foolproof.

Even if the battle of Damingfu was lost, the Great Zhou army could regroup at the first opportunity, and the internal defense of Damingfu would not be weakened.

Therefore, Yelu Xinxian had already lost before the battle even started.

But as the war progressed, Wei Yuan felt that things were not that simple.
"Before this, I have been paying close attention to Yelu Xin's moves, and Changzhi's layout in the Qi and Lu areas is also perfect."

"But Yelu Xinxian suddenly showed an eagerness to achieve quick success and attacked Daming Prefecture, which was unlike his steady character."

Just as he said this, news came from Ye Bushou.

It is said that Yelu Ren first appeared in the Wangdu area.

Wei Yuan immediately felt that something was wrong.

"Wangdu. Zhending Prefecture. Daming Prefecture."

"No wonder. No wonder."

Lin Zhaoyuan frowned and asked, "My Lord, what's wrong?"

Wei Yuan said: "The real killer of Liao is still Yelu Renxian, not Yelu Xinxian!"

At this point, Lin Zhaoyuan suddenly understood everything.
"During the battle of Damingfu, Yelu Xinxian deliberately wanted to attract the main force of our Great Zhou. His purpose was to allow Yelu Renxian to smoothly march south from Wangdu?"

As soon as he finished speaking, he was already sweating profusely!

If that's really the case.

So, there are no soldiers left to defend the Zhending Prefecture area now!

Didn’t Yelu Renxian’s troops continue to be unstoppable throughout the journey?
In the past, Wei Yuan, who had always been as calm as a rock no matter what happened, was a little panicked at this moment.
"Ever since the imperial court sent Yang Huairen to lead the army north, Yelu Renxian has already begun to make plans."

"He and Yelu Xinxian deliberately acted as if they were going to take Hebei and Hedong into their possession, just to make us believe without a doubt that they really intended to join forces to attack Daming Prefecture."

"But from the beginning to the end, the Liao Kingdom's real plan was Bian Jing!"

Lin Zhaoyuan's pupils widened instantly. "My Lord, are you saying that Yelu Renxian had already anticipated this? Everything was part of his plan?"

Although Chen Daniu didn't quite understand what he heard, he was still a veteran general after all. After thinking about it for a while, he found it even more incredible.

"Is this old guy still a human being?!"

Wei Yuan was already panicking.

On the surface, it's hard to remain calm.

He has always been a person who looks at this world from the perspective of future generations.

Therefore, he always felt that he had a sense of superiority.

However, after learning that Yelu Renxian had played a whole game of chess, Wei Yuan realized that the so-called famous general of the Liao Dynasty was actually so terrifying.

If this plan, in the end, Yelu Renxian really succeeded.

Then, the change of ownership of the Central Plains and the sinking of China will no longer be empty talk!
Wei Yuan squatted at the door of the room, looking dazed, like a fool.

It was unknown how long it had passed before Lin Zhaoyuan and Chen Daniu, who were standing behind him, heard his words, which sounded like a sigh.
"Yelü Renxian at this moment is the strongest Yelü Renxian."

"Even if my teacher Zhang Fu personally led the team, I'm afraid he wouldn't be a match for me."

"To defeat him, only Duke Wuxiang and my teacher can work together."

"Besides that, I can't think of anyone who can beat Yelu Renxian today."

Chen Daniu blurted out: "Not even my eldest brother?"

"Me?" Wei Yuan laughed at himself, shook his head and said no more.

The answer is already obvious.

(End of this chapter)