When Kaiyuan City was immersed in the joy of victory, a huge happy event also happened within the royal family. The two concubines of the crown prince gave birth to princes one after another, only five days apart.

The palace was filled with joy, and ministers in the court came to congratulate him one after another, and even the queen and the emperor were rarely out of the palace.

This matter is of great significance and means the continuation of the royal bloodline, which is particularly important to any dynasty.

The emperor happily rewarded the royal grandson's princess Wang and his concubine Yu, and personally gave names to two newly born great-grandsons.

Good news ahead, joy for new generations, this year seems to be an especially exciting year, and joy permeates everyone's heart.

.........

But at the other end, Li Xingzhou felt much pressure.

In early July, the army quickly stabilized after experiencing the initial chaos. Then, with the information from Yelu Dashi, he easily pulled out all the way to the Jin army and left behind large and small fortresses.

There are many villages and towns on the road. Most of the people heard that the army was coming and most of them had already run away. All the rest were the old and weak who were not afraid of death and were too lazy to run away.

Regarding how to treat these people, Li Xingzhou has taught a lesson this time, so he first asked Yang Hongzhao about his opinions.

Yang Hongzhao arrived: "Your Majesty, letting soldiers plunder during the march will disrupt the formation of the army and disrupt military discipline. It will not be worth the loss unless we capture the big city and let the soldiers plunder."

Li Xingzhou nodded. He actually had a resistant view to this statement, but did not refute it.

There are almost very few troops who have not plundered since ancient times. Historical books will use the Spring and Autumn style to overwhelm those disgraceful things, but in fact, even the famous Sun Tzu's Art of War can be clearly written. The best way to replenish them is to loot on the spot.

How could the generals not understand? The soldiers were desperate and the country could not afford enough to buy their lives, so they had to let them snatch them, at least to their own people.

After realizing the experience, Li Xingzhou realized why the Yue family army, who would rather starve to death than rob the people, would be loved by the people so much, and will be remembered forever and passed down by everyone.

Because it is really rare! There is such an army in such an era.

And there is even more cruel situation at the border, that is, buffer zones.

The borders of this era are not as clear as those of later generations. They are pulled on barbed wire and cast national border markers.

There will be a very wide buffer zone in the middle of the actual control area, which varies according to the region. In some desolate and remote places, the buffer zone may be dozens or hundreds of miles wide.

The people living in those buffer zones are in trouble. Neither side admits it, nor does it show mercy. In theory, it means that if you don’t steal the enemy, it will rob, which is equivalent to strengthening the enemy. But who can explain the true intentions clearly?

In short, almost all the young and strong people left, and the elderly, weak, sick and disabled were burned, killed and robbed by both sides for years, and they would kill good people from time to time to time to make achievements.

These cruelty are far from unimaginable as people living in peaceful times.

Li Xingzhou followed Yang Hongzhao's advice and ordered the army not to loot, and to purify military discipline and move forward, and soon approached the city of Ningyuan.

The Jin army had been on high alert for a long time, and at the same time, it probably absorbed the information about the defeated troops in Shanhaiguan. The gate was thickened, and there were only a few sentries on the top of the city wall.

Li Xingzhou ordered the army to camp ten miles away from Ningyuan City, and then the army surrounded Ningyuan City.

In addition, a reconnaissance company was sent to bypass Ningyuan to investigate the deployment of the Jin army in the rear.

Ningyuan is a major city, but unlike Shanhaiguan, it completely blocks the road to the north. Fortresses like Ningyuan can be bypassed, but if you rashly bypass Ningyuan and attack more deeply, you will likely fall into a situation of attacking front and back.

However, it is fine to let the army surround Ningyuan, and a few troops bypass and explore and attack surrounding small cities. Many surrounding small cities directly descend on the wind, and Ningyuan will soon become an isolated city.

Unfortunately, the flowering artillery shells were almost exhausted in the battle of Shanhaiguan, and they were not enough to collapse the city walls in Ningyuan. There were still solid bullets left, but they could not cause too much damage to the city.

So the two sides entered a tug-of-war and confrontation. In fact, as long as there is enough time, Li Xingzhou could completely take down Ningyuan. As long as Ningyuan's supplies were cut off, this would be an isolated city and could not last long.

Once the Jin army was forced to leave the city, Li Xingzhou was 90% sure to defeat them.

However, time doesn’t wait for anyone. It’s July now, with a 100,000 army. The logistics pressure is too great. At most, it will last until the end of this year.

By then, the north will be cold and the transportation pressure will be greater, the weather will be cold, the heat loss will accelerate, and maintaining body temperature will require more energy and more food to support the army.

So he has more than four months left and there is not much time left.

However, Li Xingzhou was not too anxious. He had his army at sea, and Liaodong was his last killer weapon.

In order to achieve the strategic goal, Li Xingzhou sent people to attack the city every day to create pressure on the Jin Kingdom, and was covered by muskets. The troops climbed to the top of the city several times, but the Jin people adopted Yelu Tuohu's tactics and killed them every time.

The result of repeated battles was that there were casualties every day. Li Xingzhou looked at the city wall from a distance and the casualties of the soldiers. Several times he almost ordered the siege to stop the siege, but in the end he gritted his teeth and kept silent.

He understood that such casualties were meaningless and that it was impossible to conquer the city like this, but he had to do so, making the Jin people think that he had used any means to let the Jin people transfer their troops south as much as possible, and everything was for the final victory.

Every day, people are dying, and life seems to have become bargaining chips and tools. He can only stare coldly.

Wei Yu, Bai, Yang and Hong Zhao thought he wanted to fight quickly because winter was not far away.

Yan Shen even led his men to the top of the city, but he was eventually defeated. The Jin Kingdom stationed a large army in the city to defend the enemy. The elite Jin army was the elite who followed Wanyan Wugunai to fight south and north. They had a firm fighting will and had rich combat experience, which was difficult to deal with, and were easy to deal with.

Shanhaiguan and the others caught off guard, while Ningyuan defenders were fully prepared.

Li Xingzhou's heart was bleeding when he saw a soldier dying every day, but he didn't say a word. Benevolence is a taboo for the commander. He could only hope that such sacrifice was worth it and could bring a good result.

I don’t know what Di Zhi and Shen Lin are doing now on the sea. He has no clairvoyance and can only hope for everything through the vast sea.

Sometimes he even had nightmares at night, dreaming that Di Zhi's fleet encountered a storm, and the entire fleet was like falling leaves, and the huge waves easily swallowed them... and then woke up in cold sweat.

Fuck him, it's so scary!

But this is completely possible. No one can tell the matter at sea. I just hope they are not so unlucky. The sea is not just a vacuum of power, but also a terrible uncontrollable situation.

I don’t know when the days of worrying about being afraid will come. Ningyuan’s siege continues. Time has come unknowingly, and there is still no news from Di Zhi them.
Chapter completed!