The baggage convoy that ambushed the Northern Han Dynasty and injured two captains, which made Hou Dayong heartbroken. "It seems that after this battle, the Black Eagle Army will establish a professional intelligence system to collect the situation of important opponents such as Han, Liao, and Tang, so as to know their own and his opponents. Liu Jiye has good archery skills and fast guns."

After the Black Eagle Army won the battle, Li Chongjin's attitude did not change much. Without a word of commendation, he did not care about the injured military academy. Li Chongjin reported the battle form: "The Great Zhou vanguard found the Northern Han Army's baggage convoy in Shuangtougou. The guards' personal army, the cavalry and infantry chief guard, ordered the Black Eagle Army to ambush at the Round Ridge Ridge, destroy the enemy's convoy, kill thousands of enemies. The Black Eagle Army's captain Kuang Cao and Shan Zongyuan were injured by the enemy."

On March 18, Chai Rong led the capital to Zezhou and met with the vanguard. Chai Rong did not enter the city and stayed overnight in the suburbs of Zezhou. In order to satisfy the soldiers' wish to see the emperor's style, Chai Rong wore a military uniform and inspected the entire army. Seeing His Majesty's heroic spirit, the soldiers of the Great Zhou army greatly boosted their morale. Later generations, to commemorate this battle, the village where Chai Rong stationed was renamed Linze Village. The carriage Chai Rong was riding was called the chariot, so the place where he got on the chariot was called the lower chariot and the upper chariot village.

After the review, Chai Rong received the news of Li Chongjin. After rummaging over and over, he handed the news to Zhang Zhao, the Minister of War. After Zhang Zhao looked at it, he silently put the news on the table. Chai Rong said: "Burning down the baggage is a great achievement, and the Black Diao Army is the main force of this battle. The merits of Hou Dayong, the chief general of the Black Diao Army, were not mentioned in the news of the Black Diao Army. Li Chongjin's power is too small." Zhang Zhao suggested: "You can reward the soldiers of the Black Diao Army to boost the military power."

"No need, after the war, we will reward you according to the merits. In addition, we will transfer the Black Eagle Army to the Palace Front Office."

"Your Majesty, the front office of the Palace has another powerful general. In front of him, Zhao Kuangyin killed the general and seized the pass, and behind him, Hou Dayong burned the baggage. With such a brave general in the Great Zhou Dynasty, why worry about the death of the Northern Han Dynasty?"

Zhang Yongde, the commander of the palace in front of the palace, was Chai Rong's brother-in-law. The army in front of the palace commanded by Zhang Yongde was actually Chai Rong's personal guard. Chai Rong led the capital to move very quickly. When he arrived in Zezhou, the reserve team led by Liu Ci had not yet followed, and the entire army had only 25,000 troops. Chai Rong received the news that Liu Chong of the Northern Han Dynasty and Yang Gun, the governor of the Liao Jie, personally led a 40,000 army to Gaoping, fifty miles away from Zezhou. Chai Rong transferred the Black Eagle Army to Zhang Yongde's army to strengthen the strength of the personal guards.

Hou Dayong quickly reported to the front office of the Palace and saluted. Zhang Yongde smiled happily and said, "The Black Eagle Army is well-known. Hou Du commander came to the front office of the Palace and ordered the front office of the Palace to be like a tiger. The war is in a tight position and cannot welcome the commander. I have met several good brothers first. After the war, everyone will drink hard and never stop drunk."

Hou Dayong quickly said, "Thank you for your support."

Afterwards, Zhang Yongde introduced the generals of the Secretariat in front of the palace to Hou Dayong one by one. When introducing a young general, Zhang Yongde said: "This is Zhao Kuangyin, the tiger general of the Secretariat in front of the palace."

When he heard Zhao Kuangyin's reputation, Hou Dayong was shocked. Zhao Kuangyin had a national face, an iron head with a horned horn on his head, wearing a black armor, holding Hou Dayong's hand vigorously. Zhao Kuangyin's hands were wide, gentle, strong, slightly sweating, and very thick and powerful. Zhao Kuangyin said politely: "The commander of Hou Du to kill Liu Cunxiao and shoot Xiao Baozhen, which has long been famous all over the world. When I saw him today, it was indeed worthy of his reputation. After the war, brothers invite you to drink."

Zhang Yongde, Zhao Kuangyin and others' heroic spirit and Li Chongjin's indifference formed a strong contrast in Hou Dayong's heart.

Hou Dayong didn't know that on his way to Zezhou, Zhao Kuangyin had just fought a clean and neat siege at Tianjing Pass. Tianjing Pass was on the Taihang Mountain more than 40 miles southeast of Zezhou and was an extremely important transportation route. In order to cut off the retreat of the Zezhou defenders, Liu Chong sent his general Li Yanneng to attack and seize the pass. In order to regain this strategic location, Chai Rong sent Zhao Kuangyin to lead his troops to attack Tianjing Pass.

Zhao Kuangyin defeated the Northern Han army in front of the Tianjing Pass. Li Yanneng led his army back to the pass and refused to leave. The Great Zhou army was difficult to conquer for a while. Gao Huaide, the general of Zhao Kuangyin, offered his advice: "I will bring the dead soldiers and hide them outside the pass. The army can pretend to retreat. When the defenders relax their vigilance, they will sneak into the pass and open the city gate. The city will be broken."

The next day, Zhao Kuangyin led his army to withdraw according to his plan. Li Yanneng saw the Zhou army withdraw, and sent scouts to secretly investigate his whereabouts, confirming that Zhou soldiers did indeed move out of camp. Li Yanneng relaxed his vigilance, opened the door to close, and let the people go in and out to collect woodcutters and do business, and move around. Gao Huaide took the opportunity to bring people into the pass. At night, the Great Zhou army came back to surround the South City Gate and shouted in unison, pretending to attack the city, and Li Yanneng defended the South City. At the third update, Gao Huaide sneaked into the guards, cut the pass and locked it. Zhao Kuangyin led his men and horses to rush in. After Li Yanneng was killed, all the remaining soldiers of the Tianjing Pass surrendered, and the Great Zhou army successfully seized the Tianjing Pass.

On the night of the 18th, Chai Rong summoned Fan Aineng, He Hui, Shi Yanchao, Bai Chongzan, Xiang Xun's generals who entered Hedong from the middle road to discuss tomorrow's combat plan. Chai Rong specially asked Zhao Kuangyin, Hou Dayong, Ma Renyu and other lower-grade generals to stand aside and listen to their battle.

"Now Liu Chong's army has reached Gaoping, less than fifty miles away from Zezhou. The Northern Han army was defeated by the Great Zhou army, and its spirit has been devastated. The coalition leader personally led the army to take this opportunity to eliminate the main force of the Northern Han army in Gaoping, and solve the major problems in the north in one battle. If hesitated for a moment, the main force of the Northern Han army escaped, and it would be difficult to wipe out the entire annihilation."

During the march of the Great Zhou Dynasty, Zhao Chao, the commander of the Imperial Army Control and Hedu, ordered Zheng Xiangqian, the clerk of the affairs house, to advise Chai Rong to dissuade Chai Rong from his personal expedition. Chai Rong was angry that he disrupted the morale of the army and imprisoned Zhao Chao in Huaizhou. Therefore, this time Chai Rong discussed the combat plan, and the generals dared not make any difference.

The commander of the horse army, Fan Aineng, was in a heart of a stimulus. "The Northern Han army has a far greater force than the Great Zhou army. The army is strong. It is best to avoid its edge, but what Your Majesty is worried about is that the Northern Han army runs away. Alas, if this battle is defeated, the Great Zhou will be in danger."

Seeing that the generals had no objection, Chai Rong felt a little satisfied. He looked up and saw several standing generals and asked casually: "What are the plans for the generals?"

Hou Dayong did not expect Chai Rong to ask a question, and thought for a moment, saying, "Your Majesty has a thorough thought. The Northern Han army will be defeated in this battle. There are ten strong archers in the Black Eagle Army. Liao general Xiao Baozhen is the one who shot them. The battle tomorrow will make the strong archers hide in the formation and wait for an opportunity to shoot and kill the enemy generals and calculate their sharpness. The morale of the Northern Han army will decline. Someone called this plan a beheading operation."

Chai Rong smiled and said, "This is the plan to capture the king first, behead the action, and a good name."

On March 19th, the Battle of Gaoping finally officially started. In the morning, the two armies collided head-on.

At this time, Liu Chong did not know that Chai Rong personally fought for the expedition, so he found that the main force of the Great Zhou army heading north and arranged a formation at the original Ba Gong. Liu Chong personally led the central army, Zhang Yuanhui led the army to the east, and Yang Gun led the Khitan cavalry to the west, with a strong army.

Chai Rong was afraid that the Northern Han army and the Liao army would escape, so he insisted on attacking quickly. The rear army led by the Heyang Jiedushi Liu Ci fell behind. When Ba Gongyuan met the enemy, the Great Zhou army had only 25,000 troops. Faced with the situation of heavy enemy and small, Chai Rong was very calm and ordered Bai Chongzan and Li Chongjin to lead the left army in the west, Fan Aineng and He Hui to lead the right army in the east, Xiang Xun, Shi Yanchao led the elite cavalry to form a formation in the middle, and Zhang Yongde, the commander in front of the hall, led the imperial guards to protect the emperor.

The north wind blew, the military flag was "hunting", Chai Rong was covered with his whole body, and he stepped onto the front of the formation to supervise the battle, and Zhang Yongde, Zhao Kuangyin, Hou Dayong and Ma Renyu were closely behind.

Seeing that there were not many people in the Great Zhou Dynasty, Liu Chong waved his whip and said to the generals: "I am a mere traitor, and the Khitans are not working. Our Han army should defeat the Zhou army, so let the Khitan see our history." The Liao army's Wuding Jiedushi, and the government commander Yang Gun carefully observed the formation and appearance of the Great Zhou army, and said to Liu Chong: "The Zhou army is in line with neat arrays and well-armored, so you should not attack rashly."

Liu Chong was in the middle of the Great Zhou and Liao, and was a feud with the Great Zhou. He could only rely on the Liao Kingdom. He had enough cowards and had many disagreements with Yang Gun. Today, he saw that he had a chance of winning, so he was very dissatisfied and said: "You must not miss the opportunity, you will not come again. There is no need to say the general, let's see the Han army defeat the enemy." Seeing Liu Chong like this, Yang Gun was unwilling to say much, so he ordered the Liao army to be on guard and watch the tiger fight.

At this time, the northeast wind was strong, which made the soldiers of the Great Zhou army unable to open their eyes. Chai Rong saw that the wind was too strong, which was not conducive to the army's attack and was vaguely worried. While Chai Rong was worried, the wind suddenly changed and the south wind was blowing in March. Seeing this fighter plane, Chai Rong beat the drum and issued an order.

Hearing the sound of the Great Zhou war drums, Liu Chong also ordered the drum to be beaten. Wang Dezhong, the Privy Councilor of the Northern Han Dynasty, saw the wind suddenly change and felt that it was not appropriate to attack. He raised his horse to Liu Chong and said, "The sudden change in the wind direction is not conducive to our army. Our army is conquering the superiors and takes advantage of the geographical advantage. After this wind passes, he can occupy the heaven, the heaven, the earth, and the harmony of the people, and can defeat him in one go."

Liu Chong was stubborn and wanted to defeat the Zhou army at this time, but he couldn't listen to other opinions at all. He ordered the Eastern Army to attack first. Zhang Yuanhui was known as the most brave general of the Northern Han Dynasty. After receiving the order, he led more than a thousand elite cavalry to attack the Great Zhou Youjun. Fan Aineng, the commander of the Great Zhou Youjun, and He Hui was afraid to fight. Seeing Zhang Yuanhui attacking, he ordered his generals to lead two thousand people to attack. The two armies met, and the Northern Han army rushed down from the high ground, with a strong momentum. Zhang Yuanhui held a steel gun and fought with the Great Zhou army. After the Great Zhou army, the generals dared not to confront him. Zhang Yuanhui chased him reluctantly. Fan Aineng, the commander of the Zhou army, commanded the cavalry and lined up in front of the formation. Seeing Zhang Yuanhui's bravery, he turned his horse and fled. The cavalry was in chaos, and the infantry formation behind him was chaotic. Zhang Yuanhui led the Northern Han cavalry to surround thousands of Great Zhou infantry, and the Great Zhou infantry actually disarmed and surrendered in front of the formation.

Seeing that Zhang Yuanhui was extremely brave, Hou Dayong turned around and said to the ten strong archers following behind him: "If this person reaches the range, be sure to shoot him." Chai Rong saw the urgent war, the right wing of the Great Zhou army was defeated. The left army and the middle army soldiers were all in expression. They took Ma Renyu and others' left and right soldiers, regardless of arrows and stones, and Lenin came out to supervise the battle. At the same time, Hou Dayong led the Black Eagle Army from the middle, Zhang Yongde led 2,000 people from the left wing, and Zhao Kuangyin led 2,000 people from the right wing to carry out counterattack.

When the soldiers of the Great Zhou army saw His Majesty attacking in person, their morale was restored.

Three troops rushed to the Northern Han army. The Black Eagle Army took out bows and arrows when it was normal to charge. After the Black Eagle Army was running and galloping into the archery route, the entire Black Eagle Army raised arrows on the horse at the same time. Nearly two thousand iron arrows were shot into the Northern Han army, and the Northern Han army was facing down. The inner palace straight horse Renyu was a famous archer in the Great Zhou Dynasty. He jumped on his horse and shot dozens of enemy troops in a row. Seeing that the Black Eagle Army was very well-trained, he immediately ran and shot arrows, which was more skillful than the Liao people. When Ma Renyu was brave, he couldn't help but cheer. The troops behind Chai Rong shouted in unison.

The Northern Han Dynasty had 30,000 troops and horses, but they could not stop the three commandos. Seeing that the enemy was in a retreat, Chai Rong ordered the head horse of the right fence in front of the palace to lead hundreds of cavalry to attack forward.

After Chai Rong came out of the battle, he was recognized by the sharp-eyed General of the Northern Han and immediately reported to Liu Chong. Only then did Liu Chong realize that Chai Rong was personally expeditioning. After suffering a fierce attack, the Northern Han army retreated for hundreds of meters, and gradually stabilized its position. Zhang Yuanhui returned from the left army and joined Liu Chong.

After the first battle, the two armies had their own victory or defeat.

When Liu Chong saw Zhang Yuanhui, he was very happy and praised Zhang Yuanhui to cheer for the troops. At the same time, he ordered Zhang Yuanhui to lead 4,000 elite cavalry to attack the Central Army of the Great Zhou and kill Chai Rong. Zhang Yuanhui led the elite soldiers of the Northern Han army and came to the Central Army with great momentum. Faced with the impact of Zhang Yuanhui, the soldiers of the Great Zhou were afraid again. Seeing that Zhang Yuanhui was rushing in front, it was a great opportunity to carry out the "decapitation operation". He ordered ten strong archers to hang bows and arrows, and waited for Zhang Yuanhui to enter the range, and one strike was fatal. At the same time, he ordered the Black Eagle Army battalions to prepare for charge.

As soon as Zhang Yuanhui rushed into the arrow, ten iron arrows came towards him. Zhang Yuanhui was very awesome. He used a gun grid to shoot five arrows, and three arrows flashed through him. He was hit by an arrow on his thigh, and a war horse was also hit by an arrow on the head. After the war horse was caught, he fell to the ground and died. Zhang Yuanhui was thrown off his horse. The entire Black Eagle Army quickly charged, and Shi Hu rushed to the front of the team and came to the place where Zhang Yuanhui landed. Zhang Yuanhui was trying to get up. Shi Hu's war horse stepped on him. Shi Hu leaned over and raised his knife, cut off Zhang Yuanhui's head with a knife, then used a long sword to provoke it, and ran wildly.

Seeing this, the morale of the Great Zhou army increased even higher. Zhao Kuangyin, Ma Renyu and other brave generals led their troops to attack the Northern Han army. At this time, the wind was getting stronger and stronger, and the Northern Han army was defeated. Liu Chongzhu waved his flag himself, but he could not stop the defeat of the Northern Han army. Yang Gun saw that the Great Zhou army was extremely brave and did not dare to rescue him. He hated Liu Chong for not listening to the advice and led the Khitan cavalry to retreat first.

(End of Chapter 15)
Chapter completed!