"Don't you want to take a break?" Han Shizhong was even more puzzled. "Besides, for something like burning a mountain, why would you, a deputy governor, be needed? A captain is enough!"

"Fifth brother." Jie Yuan finally stopped a few dozen steps away and turned back to face him. "Your idea is very good. It is the most appropriate strategy at the moment. There is no way I won't do it... But look at the villages along the way. They are all empty. Where have all the people gone?"

Han Shizhong was slightly stunned.

"I have no intention of hindering the military operations," Jie Yuan continued. "But I am the deputy governor and a local. I only need to tell the soldiers below about this matter and personally go down the mountain. They will naturally try to drive the people out of the mountain first and then burn the mountain... Otherwise, given their current exhaustion, they will probably just burn the mountain and end the matter. What will happen then?"

Han Shizhong said nothing, just nodded and went back to work.

Jie Yuan said no more and just turned around and left.

Just like that, in the middle of the night, a fire started to spread on the hilltop covered with fallen leaves from early winter, and then it became uncontrollable. The fire was so blazing that it illuminated both sides of the Fen River like day.

Just as the Song army, which had hurriedly followed Han Shizhong to this place, was staring at the huge torch on the plain, at the same time, they had already come into contact with part of the defeated army. At this time, they were camping on the south bank of Fenshui River, sandwiched between the Fenshui tributary, with Balisu and his main force of the Jin army; confronting Balisu, who were camping at Tieling Pass with Li Yanxian and his main force of the Song army; including Xu Shi'an, Chen Ju and other generals of the left army of the imperial camp, who had been notified and were stationed in several gaps to the south of Han Shizhong, were all stunned at the same time and noticed the movement here.

Among them, Xu Shi'an and Chen Ju acted the fastest. The two had already received orders from Jie Yuan, so they had no hesitation and immediately sent troops to the north to provide support overnight.

At the same time, Li Yanxian at Tieling Pass was the first to realize Han Shizhong's intention. It was he who discovered the possible flaw in the gap in the west and prompted Han Shizhong to send troops to rescue. At the expected time, this kind of movement occurred on the east side of the designated battlefield. One could guess what was going on.

Han Shizhong must have successfully blocked the Jin army, defeated the enemy head-on, and then pursued them here.

As for setting fire to the mountain, there was a precedent before Ma Kuo, so what it meant was of course self-evident.

This is the tacit understanding after a few days of scolding each other.

Sure enough, Li Yanxian did not hesitate at all. On the one hand, he urgently sent people to Jiangxian to inform Ma Kuo to guard the flanks well to prevent the Jin people from making desperate moves. On the other hand, he immediately mobilized overnight and sent the seven armies of Guannan and the Huyan Tong troops left behind by Han Shizhong out of the pass to the north to attack Balisu who was camped at Jiahui River again.

Of course, while issuing these orders, Li Jiedu did not forget one thing, which was to pull down Han Shizhong's annoying banner from Tieling Pass first!

Even if it was just for half a day, he felt comfortable.

By the same token, Balisu, who was the target of public criticism, had actually guessed what Han Shizhong was going to do as soon as he saw the fire, because he had been coming into contact with Salihe's retreating troops and scattered defeated troops since the first half of the night. Even Salihe himself had run for an entire afternoon and the night before and only came back directly. He had already known that the west had been defeated.

If it were him, he would definitely take advantage of the situation and attack!

And when there was a movement at Tieling Pass, the news could not be concealed, and the commander-in-chief of the Jin army had a clearer understanding of the situation.

However, there is a problem here. In the dark, the Grand Commander-in-Chief Balisu, who is able to see through things as clearly as a fire, has no idea how many troops Salihe lost on the south bank of the Fen River this morning, nor does he know how many troops Han Shizhong used to defeat Salihe's ten thousand cavalry.

Ask Salihe, but he doesn’t know the answer!

Are there only the Beiwei Army and the Cuipian Army, or are there tens of thousands of Imperial Camp Cavalry following behind them?

This is very possible. You can know with your eyes closed that in the past half month, the Song army must have been constantly transporting soldiers, food, and supplies to the Hezhong Basin (Yuncheng Basin). It is possible that the tens of thousands of imperial cavalry have already arrived at Hezhong Prefecture, while the Jin army, whose information was blocked by the corridor, had no idea about it, so they suffered this defeat.

Even if we consider that the Song army stuffed all the newly sent troops behind Tieling Pass, or that the Song army did not transport too many troops at all, we also have to consider that Hedong City has fallen, and Black Dragon Wang Sheng has appeared on the battlefield with the main force of the Left Army of the Imperial Camp, right?

In a word, they were caught off guard, and the situation was chaotic at night, so it was impossible for Balisu to conduct accurate reconnaissance and intelligence gathering.

In this situation, he could only be aware of the tactical actions of the Song army and give the enemy some leniency!

And if we assume that Han Shizhong has enough main forces of the Song army following him, the worst result is that if he does not take action, he may be surrounded and defeated by the Song army, and his entire army may be wiped out, and the entire Hedong may be handed over to the Jin Dynasty... or, more seriously, he may surrender directly on behalf of the Jin Dynasty.

Because here in the Tieling Pass battlefield, the Jin army has as many as five or six thousand households, which is nearly a quarter of the Jin army's main field force.

Of course, the actual situation could not be so bad. The more likely possibility was that Wanyan Tuhesu's Wanhu, who was stationed on the south bank of the Huishui River, and a considerable number of elite cavalrymen including Wanyan Salihe and Yelu Mawu who had not yet had time to escape, were trapped by the Song army on the south bank of the Huishui River and suffered heavy losses.

"Let Tuhesu retreat back to the Huishui area first and join forces with me."

After sitting there for a while, in the brightly lit Jin army camp, Balisu finally made a decision.

“Send another message to Quwo, telling Zhehe not to rest any longer, but to march westwards overnight, cross the Fen River, and enter the city of Jiangzhou. They must clamp both sides of the Fen River and leave no room for the Song army to encircle them…”

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