Immediately, Li Yanxian led the remaining Shanluo troops, about 10,000 people, plus Wang De's 20,000 people, a total of 30,000 soldiers, and set off together. They caught up with Lu Yihao within a day.

On the same day, Niu Gao, Shao Yun, Zhai Jin, Zhai Chong and Generals Dong Xian and Zhang Qi met up in Jingxing. Six commanding officers took turns to fight all night long and captured Baijingzhai in one fell swoop, seizing the key point in the front section of Jingxing. In the second half of the night, they sent envoys to report the victory to Emperor Zhao behind them.

On the 22nd day of the first lunar month, seven days after Generals Dong and Zhang set out, Wu Jie finally assembled his army from Taiyuan and headed eastward. After leaving 10,000 garrisons in Taiyuan and Xihe, he led a force mainly composed of light cavalry reinforcements from Khitan, Mongolia, Dangxiang, Xi and others, and set off eastward.

Up to this point, the number of Song army troops dispatched eastward from Taiyuan alone reached as high as 140,000!

Moreover, when the war started, the 300,000-man Song army was divided into two parts. The front army, right army, navy and navy of the imperial camp in Hebei were about 90,000 soldiers. The main force of the imperial camp gathered in Hedong was self-evident, which was a full 210,000 soldiers! Counting the 25,000 reinforcements from Yinshan and Western Mongolia, there should be 230,000 to 240,000 soldiers.

However, after several months of fighting, there will inevitably be consumption and strange casualties. In addition, after occupying almost the entire Hedong area, the Song army had to leave garrisons in key places just in case and participate in maintaining logistics... For example, Taiyuan, Datong, Yanmen Pass, Xihe, and Longde Prefecture, all left behind organized garrisons.

So, when Li Yanxian saw Wu Jie appear in the Taiyuan Basin, he led his troops eastward without waiting for him to come back. In fact, the underlying reason was that he wanted the rear army of the Imperial Camp to take on the defense of the Taiyuan Basin, while letting his remaining troops participate in the eastward war... and Wu Jie could only suffer this loss and had to disperse all the 20,000 troops led by Guo Hao in the Datong Basin and the Taiyuan Basin.

Poor Guo Hao, he was trapped in the fortress by Qu Duan when he was in Yaoshan, and this time he was trapped in Taiyuan by Li Yanxian.

Wang Sheng was also tricked, but Wang Sheng was too clever for his own good and could not blame anyone else - he was defeated in Pingxingzhai, lost his baggage and was unable to advance. The logistics had just been supplied, so he could only continue to advance from Puyinxing as a "surprise force" to harass Zhending Prefecture from behind.

But everyone knows that Jingxing is the most direct passage from Taiyuan to Hebei, and the most convenient passage among the Eight Xings of Taihang Mountains. Even the itinerary of Zhending Prefecture and the importance of Taiyuan Prefecture are largely due to their relationship with Jingxing... In this case, it seems a little difficult for Wang Sheng to catch up with some things.

In addition, there are the main forces of more than 10,000 people led by General Xiao Fan of Li Qiong's Eight Character Army who were abandoned at the beginning. It goes without saying that they will definitely follow Qu Duan's Imperial Cavalry into Longde Prefecture and become the defenders of Longde Prefecture. Only the main forces of more than 10,000 people of the Eight Character Army led by Li Qiong himself were able to turn back from Liaozhou, and they should be able to meet up with the main forces of Emperor Zhao in time.

Even Qu Duan's Imperial Cavalry had no idea how many soldiers they had available after Zhang Zhongfu's disastrous defeat. Moreover, they were now supposed to be carrying out the mission of following the main force of the Jin army northward to the east of Taihang Mountains, so the situation was completely unclear.

And the Eastern Mongolian tribes, who no one cared about, were even more excluded from all calculations... Even though Hebula sent Anbahai to Datong to explain as soon as he received Wu Jie's request, even though Anbahai immediately turned around after discovering that all the troops from Datong were heading south, and took the initiative to persuade Hebula to give up his excuses and deal with the Tatars.

More than 10,000 Eastern Mongolian tribesmen, from the leader down, were almost all in panic and confusion, and had no idea where to go.

But again, no one cares anymore.

Even so, even if all these minor issues are put aside, everyone can calculate a possible and terrifying final number of participants in the war.

"At least 150,000 or 160,000, at most 200,000, and in the end, the actual number may be 170,000 or 180,000..."

Across the Taihang Mountains, less than a hundred miles away from the Song army's vanguard, north of Daluze, in Gaoyi County, Zhaozhou, in the hall of the county government in the city, after collecting intelligence from all sides, Gao Qingyi, who was sitting with bloodshot eyes, gave a more accurate number than the Zhao official's side, because they knew very well how many cavalry groups would be gathered by Qu Duan, Liu Qi, Zhang Zhongfu, Zhang Zhongyan, Zhang Xian and others who were far behind them. "It mainly depends on whether Wang Sheng in Puyinxing and Hebule in the north will gather here. As for Qu Duan and Zhang Xian, it is impossible to deal with them before the main force of the Song army leaves Jingxing."

"Including Erluguan and his men who are already in Zhending, we have 13 thousand households here, but we have no time to replenish the losses from various battles. In fact, we still have more than 100,000 soldiers and cavalry." The hall was empty except for a table covered with a map. Wuzhu, who was also exhausted, closed his eyes and spoke at the side of the table, repeating the numbers that he had already memorized. "Huo Nu and Wulin Da Taiyu have already arrived in Baozhou (Baoding in later generations). My eldest brother also handed over the four Hezhameng'ans in Yanjing to Wanyan Poshu according to my letter, and they will arrive in Baozhou soon... These three people will definitely make it in time! But what about the south? Is it undefended? What if Yue Fei catches up and gets involved?"

"So we must launch the attack as soon as possible." Gao Qingyi repeated the words he had repeated many times. "Before Yue Fei goes downstream and reaches Hejian, and before the Zhao Song government leaves Jingxing and reaches Zhending... It would be best if Wang Sheng in the north doesn't have time to join us, so that we can have 120,000 or 30,000 troops against 170,000 or 180,000!"

"What do you think, Marshal?" Wuzhu, who was dry-mouthed and exhausted, closed his eyes and called out to another person in the hall... In fact, there were only three people around the table with the map in the hall. They also arrived here in a hurry and hastily convened a small-scale military meeting.

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