At dawn, Han Shizhong entered Tieling Pass and Li Yanxian led the people to greet him.
In front of everyone, Li Yanxian's expression was calm, and Han Shizhong was smiling and talking, and neither of them lost their composure... Or, after going through the motions, Prince Han just had someone insert his unparalleled banner behind the gate, and then he directly occupied the highest and most upright room in the middle of the dilapidated pass and went to sleep.
Li Yanxian and others had nothing to say. Not to mention that Han Shizhong's cavalry had the most gains last night... In fact, it was not much. It was dark and Han Shizhong's soldiers were not familiar with the terrain. It was difficult to catch up with the cavalry. In addition, many Jin soldiers fell behind, and not many people actually arrived at the pass and fell into the danger zone... It was only about 700 to 800 people, which was one-third of the actual number of invading enemy troops. Wanyan Zhehe had not yet been captured.
But whether it was the seven or eight hundred or the one or two thousand in the battle in front of the Yellow Crane Tower, Han Shizhong's troops basically achieved all the gains against the main force of the Jin army, Meng'an and Mouke, since the war began.
He alone gained more than the other nine military governors' subordinates combined, and he basically did it all himself.
Rounding it off, if there are another twenty such battles, the Jin army will have no time to fight and will simply be considered a failure in the decisive battle and surrender and the country will be destroyed.
Besides, he was the unique prince and the Marshal of Hedong whose orders were known to the world. Naturally, he was qualified to look down on anyone, especially Li Yanxian who had just suffered heavy losses.
Compared to Prince Han, Ma Kuo and Ma Zichong, another rescue hero who arrived at noon with great difficulty, had a more appropriate attitude. He was even cautious... There was no other way. It was not only because Ma Kuo's status was obviously different from Li Yanxian's, nor was it a problem of Prince Xin. The more important point was that after this battle, Tieling Pass was stabilized and the Taihang Volunteer Army was officially back. He had to strive for enough treatment for the Taihang Volunteer Army and did not dare to offend anyone at this time.
However, Ma Kuo was even more sleepy than Han Shizhong. He barely stayed in the palace and watched Li Yanxian arrange the camp for his army. Then he could not hold on any longer, so he found a room and fell asleep.
But Ma Kuo did not sleep for long. Before evening, he turned over and dared not sleep again. He went out directly, found some cold water and just wiped his face. When he was about to go out, someone was waiting for him at the door. He said that Marshal Han had woken up and was observing the situation at the pass with Li Jiedu. He had given special instructions and was waiting for Ma Zongguan to get up and invite him to go to the pass.
Ma Kuo naturally had nothing to say.
However, although it is called a pass, Tieling Pass is not really a great pass. It is just a chokepoint. It gradually became famous because the Hedong area was particularly important during the Five Dynasties... but it is not a big or good reputation.
But then again, after this battle, I'm afraid he will have some reputation.
Apart from anything else, three of the ten military governors of the Song Dynasty gathered inside the pass at this time. Looking northeast of the pass towards Quwo, less than 20 miles away on the bank of the Huishui River, there was a serious Jin general with two well-known commanders, which was enough to leave behind some famous scenic spots and historical sites.
Without further ado, let's just say that Ma Kuo received the message and had just entered the small courtyard inside the pass. Before he stepped onto the gate, he saw two large banners standing on the gate tower. The 'Unparalleled in the World' banner was standing in the middle unreasonably, pushing the 'Mainstay' banner to one side, making it seem almost cramped, and he secretly thought something was wrong.
When I really climbed up this third-class small gate tower and turned around, I was shocked again... It turned out that there were dozens of people gathered on the platform of just a small gate.
It would be fine if these people were just guards, but the key lies in their attire. If they are not commanders, they are leaders. At the very least, they are academicians or staff members. Under normal circumstances, they are all important figures. But at this moment, they are just standing there next to each other, not daring to say a word.
As he felt more and more uneasy, Ma Zichong couldn't help thinking to himself for some unknown reason, if Balisu could get a heavy artillery carriage and fire a single shot at this place instead of using a gunpowder cannon, the Northern Expedition would probably have to be called off.
"Manager Ma is here." One of them turned around and looked at him, his eyes flashing like lightning, but he was the first to give up his seat and stand up to greet him.
Ma Kuo saw from a distance that this person was sitting in the middle of the table, and that he had a majestic bearing. Moreover, although he was only wearing a light and soft cotton garment, he wore an extravagant jade belt. He knew that this person was Han Shizhong, whom he had met once in Hebei before, so he immediately bowed and greeted him, not daring to be negligent at all:
"Prince! Marshal! I haven't seen you for ten years, and the Prince is still so free and easy!"
When Han Shizhong saw that Ma Kuo was so considerate and mentioned their past relationship, he burst into laughter and took the initiative to step forward and hold his hand.
The two sides exchanged a few pleasantries. Ma Kuo saw that Li Yanxian had a calm face and stood aside with his hands behind his back. However, he did not dare to neglect him: "Li Jiedu, we were in a hurry at noon and were unable to talk about old friends in the village..."
It turned out that the two men were actually from the same hometown in neighboring counties, one from Longxi and the other from Didao.
When Li Yanxian heard the other party bring up this relationship, he felt it was inappropriate to use Qiao as an excuse, so he quickly came up to shake hands and greet him.
After some more greetings, the three of them sat down on the three chairs side by side that had been prepared by Guan Shang long ago. Sure enough, Han Shizhong sat in the middle, Li Yanxian sat on the left, and Ma Kuo sat on the right, without any mistake at all.
The three of them sat down and chatted a little while pointing at the camp that was being built at the foot of the pass. Li Yanxian then thanked the two for their support last night, and the atmosphere became quiet.
As for Ma Kuo, he had long noticed that the atmosphere was not right, and he knew that the others had no room to interrupt, so he quickly made jokes and flattered the two of them.
However, when talking about the joke that if Han Shizhong fought another twenty such battles, the Jin army would be defeated and wiped out, Han Shizhong's reaction was a bit too much.
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