Fire Captain

Hu Qing and Bai Ziyang followed the marks left by Ye Zhao along the way and caught up with the main force. At that time, Ye Zhao was leading his troops to chase a small group of Liao soldiers. Seeing this, Hu Qing and Bai Ziyang immediately rushed into the battlefield. With these two people and Ye Zhao's previous deployment and command, they quickly dealt with this group of Liao soldiers.

The soldiers were cleaning up the battlefield. Ye Zhao came over with two of his personal soldiers and said, "Fox, did you get your cousin there safely?"

Hu Qing said, "Don't worry, General!"

Ye Zhao nodded and turned to Bai Ziyang and said, "Brother Bai, thanks to you just now, I was right, your martial arts are really good, let's have a fight when we have a chance!"

Bai Ziyang smiled and said, "Okay, General! I'll also see your 88-jin sword if there's a chance!"

Hu Qing said at the side: "General, Brother Bai was originally a disciple of Yishan Sanren. With him joining our Ye Family Army, I believe we will be even more powerful in the future."

"Really?" Ye Zhao looked at Bai Ziyang in surprise, raised his head, patted Bai Ziyang on the shoulder and said, "Then we are brothers from now on! That's great!"

The original 100,000 Ye Family Army is now less than 50,000. The first battle Ye Zhao designated was to pursue the small group of Liao Army. On the one hand, it would speed up the coordination among the remaining Ye Family Army. On the other hand, the successive victories in the wars greatly boosted the morale of the Ye Family Army and restored the original fighting spirit of the entire army.

Bai Ziyang saw that everything was going according to Ye Zhao's plan, and he couldn't help but admire her. A woman could do this, she was a natural talent. Yes, since the first time they met, Bai Ziyang knew that Ye Zhao was a woman. Firstly, he had seen countless people, and secondly, Bai Ziyang was a skilled doctor. Ordinary doctors might not be able to tell the difference between men and women, but in the eyes of a genius doctor like Bai Ziyang, the difference was quite big.

After completing the first step of Ye Zhao's plan, he summoned all the soldiers and talked about the next plan, which was to get up from where they fell. This time, the Liao army not only occupied Yongguan City, but also the 18 border states. Ye Zhao's first goal was to recapture Yongguan City.

"General, the walls of Yongguan City are tall and the city gates are strong, making it easy to defend but difficult to attack. Do you have any good strategies?" asked the lieutenant general under Ye Zhao.

Ye Zhao and his son had guarded Yongguan City for many years, so they naturally knew how strong Yongguan City was. If there hadn't been an insider who opened the city gate and let the Liao army in, Yongguan City might not have been lost. He said, "Of course, they used the Liao people's strategy to sneak into the city and open the city gate!"

Immediately, several lieutenant generals said, "General, I am willing to lead the troops to go..."

Ye Zhao looked at everyone. She knew that sneaking into the city would easily be discovered by the Liao army in the city, and then they would be caught in one fell swoop, so those who went there would almost certainly die. These people must have known this, but no one backed down. They all rushed to go as if it was some great opportunity, which touched her heart. Just as she was about to speak, she suddenly heard Bai Ziyang, who had been silent, say:

"General, please let me go. At least give me a chance to perform!"

After Bai Ziyang came to the Ye Family Army, Ye Zhao wanted to appoint him as a lieutenant general and lead 10,000 soldiers, but Bai Ziyang refused. He was not from the Ye Family Army. The army was different from other places. Life and death were at stake. He was not from the Ye Family Army. If he rashly led the army, the soldiers under him would definitely not obey or be worried. It would be easy for people to have some rumors about Ye Zhao and him. Although he could spend some time to tame these soldiers, he was too lazy to spend that time. He didn't plan to get involved in the officialdom and become a general or marshal in the future. That would be too unfree. He had to listen to the emperor's dispatch. Besides, military generals in the Song Dynasty were not popular. So he only received a nominal title of military advisor. Hu Qing was originally Ye Zhao's deputy general. Because of his talent and wit, he had always served as a military advisor. Now with Bai Ziyang, Ye Zhao also has a left military advisor and a right military advisor.

Ye Zhao glanced at Bai Ziyang, saw the confidence in his eyes, and immediately said, "Okay, how about I send another fifty soldiers to go with you?"

Bai Ziyang waved his hands and said, "Too many, too many. Just pick ten good fighters for me. Get ready and follow me to conquer the city tonight!"

Ye Zhao said: "Okay, I'll choose it for you personally!"

After leaving Ye Zhao's tent, some of the other lieutenant generals said, "Is this military advisor Bai capable? He dares to sneak into Yongguan City with only ten people? Don't let him fail and delay our mission!"

"Who knows?"

"Since the general has agreed, it should be okay. Even if we don't believe him, we have to believe the general!"

"Yes, yes..."

"Yeah, that makes sense!"

…………

After hearing their words, Bai Ziyang smiled, shook his head and left quietly, not taking it to heart at all.

At night, Bai Ziyang changed into night clothes and looked at the sky. It was cloudy and the sun was covered. It was indeed a 'good' weather. A dark moon is a good night for killing, and a strong wind is a good time for arson... He turned around and looked at the ten soldiers with good martial arts selected by Ye Zhao, including two of her personal guards, Qiu Hua and Qiu Shui. Although they were girls like Ye Zhao, their skills were far superior to those of ordinary men.

Bai Ziyang said nothing, but waved his hand and took advantage of the night to approach Yongguan City. Ye Zhao had already hidden in the dark with his soldiers, waiting for the signal of Bai Ziyang and his team's success, and then began to attack the city. So they saw from afar that Bai Ziyang and his eleven people touched the bottom of the city wall, released their flying claws and began to climb, but Bai Ziyang used his feet to pull himself up, kicked the wall twice in the middle and jumped onto the top of the wall first, as agile as a monkey.

Bai Ziyang took advantage of the Liao soldiers on the city wall not paying attention and landed on the top of the wall. With the flash of sword, he silently killed the Liao soldier on patrol and came up to support Qiu Hua Qiu Shui and others. With so many people climbing up the city wall, they were naturally discovered by the Liao soldiers. Immediately, the alarm sounded, alarming the Liao soldiers stationed in the city.

After Bai Ziyang helped them to deal with some Liao soldiers on the city wall, he said, "You guys hold the city wall, I'll go downstairs and open the city gate!"

Qiu Hua Qiu Shui said, "Yes, military advisor!" Two people guarded the stairs leading to the city wall to prevent the Liao soldiers from coming up, and the rest of them quickly dealt with the Liao soldiers on the city wall.

Bai Ziyang used his lightness skills to jump down from the city wall and landed right into the Liao army.

The Liao soldiers were naturally overjoyed to see someone falling into the trap, but they didn't expect that this Song man was so skilled in martial arts. He snatched the Liao soldier's spear and wielded it with great force. The spear tip seemed to have eyes, and every spear hit the Liao soldier's vitals. Although there were three to five thousand Liao soldiers here, none of them could get close to him for a while. Instead, the Song man held the spear in one hand and swung his other hand, and the Liao soldiers in the front row fell back one after another. Countless people were trampled and killed or injured.

Bai Ziyang threw out his spear, and with his inner strength, the Liao soldiers who were hit were like a mountain pressing down on their heads. Bai Ziyang took the opportunity to flip over and leap up. After a few leaps in the air, he came to the city gate. The gate bolt that the two soldiers usually lifted was kicked away by Bai Ziyang. Through the gap in the city gate, Bai Ziyang threw out a flare. As the flare exploded in the air, Ye Zhao immediately ordered: "Attack!"

The 30,000 Ye family soldiers rushed into Yongguan City like a tide, and the 20,000 Liao soldiers stationed in the city, seeing that the situation was not good, fled out of the city in the chaos. Yongguan City, which had been looted by the Liao soldiers, once again fell into the hands of the Ye family army and returned to the hands of the Song Dynasty.

After Yongguan City was recaptured, all the soldiers were responsible for their own tasks. Those who guarded and patrolled the city were not under Bai Ziyang's jurisdiction. In the general's mansion, Hu Qing helped Ye Zhao write memorials. The emperor had officially appointed Ye Zhao as the General Zhenbei, responsible for recovering the lost territory. The emperor would send troops to help later.

Bai Ziyang made great contributions in this battle and became famous among the Ye family army and part of the Liao army. After all, he single-handedly resisted 5,000 Liao soldiers. Although most of the Liao soldiers were blocked by his own people at that time and could not reach Bai Ziyang at all... Well, let's not talk about this. After a short rest in Yongguan City, Ye Zhao continued to pursue the Liao soldiers and attacked the 18 border states occupied by the Liao soldiers.

This fight lasted for several years...

When Ye Zhao called all the soldiers together to discuss matters, he said, "It's so cold today, and the Liao people are running out of food and grass. I'm afraid they won't be able to hold out for long. As long as we besiege them for a while, we will be able to force them to retreat without a fight."

All the soldiers nodded in agreement, but someone suddenly said, "General, although the Liao people are short of food and grass, our army's food and grass have not arrived in time, so..."

Ye Zhao frowned and asked, "How long can the remaining food and grass last?"

The lieutenant general in charge of food and logistics said: "If we eat more tightly, we can still hold out for a month. If we eat more freely, I'm afraid it will take less than half a month..."

Ye Zhao said, "On the battlefield, it's either life or death. How can we win the battle and persevere if we don't feed the soldiers? I received a letter saying that food and fodder are on the way. Now the weather is cold and we have encountered an accident on the way, which has delayed our trip. The only thing we can do now is to collect some food and fodder for emergency."

Ye Zhao glanced at the crowd. Several lieutenant generals looked embarrassed. It was fine to ask them to fight on the battlefield, but asking them to use their brains to come up with solutions was like asking them to die. Someone asked tentatively, "Why not go to other towns and rob the homes of the profiteers?"

Ye Zhao said: "Nonsense!"

The man quickly said: "...I mean buy some, buy some..."

The people nearby heard this and said, "We can buy some, but these profiteers are asking for too much. How much can we buy with our military budget?"

Others immediately agreed, "Yeah, damn it, we are fighting on the front lines, and these profiteers dare to raise the price. I say we should just do as Lao Zhang said and grab a share of the damn money."

Ye Zhao looked at the people below who were arguing and had no idea what to do. He suddenly knocked on the table and said, "Where's the fox?"

Qiu Hua immediately said, "Military Advisor Hu has gone to reorganize the first battalion!"

Ye Zhao remembered and nodded, saying, "What about the monkey?"

Qiu Hua said: "Military Advisor Bai was invited by Military Doctor Wang to come over. He said that two soldiers were seriously injured and he couldn't handle them well, so he asked Military Advisor Bai to come over and take a look."

"Hmm..." Ye Zhao frowned and shouted, "Go and see if they are done with their work. If they are, call them over to me immediately."

"Yes!" Qiuhua accepted the order and was about to go out when he heard someone outside say:

"No need to look for me, I'm back." As he said that, a man lifted the door curtain and walked in. It was none other than Bai Ziyang.

As soon as Bai Ziyang came in, he immediately said, "Who is the monkey? You have a tiger and a fox, but you still insist on calling me a monkey. Do you want to turn the Ye Family Army into a zoo?"

Ye Zhao teased, "I didn't call you a monkey, but the King of Liao gave you the title himself. You and the fox are the only ones here who can enjoy this title!"

Qiu Lao Hu below also laughed and said, "That's right, Monkey Military Advisor, who told you to run into the Liao camp and set fire to their food and grass? The 20,000 Liao soldiers couldn't catch you, and you were just jumping up and down like a monkey... The Liao King was praising you!"

"Then I thank him!" Bai Ziyang rolled his eyes and said.

Ye Zhao said: "You have heard it, I think the grain and grass allocated by the emperor will be delivered within a month at the latest, so we only need to collect half a month's worth of grain and grass. It should be enough. Let's buy it from some grain merchants!"

Bai Ziyang said: "Even if it takes half a month, the food and grass for a hundred thousand troops is not a small amount! Is the military expenditure enough now?"

Ye Zhao threw the account book over and said, "This is all I have to say about whether it's enough or not. You have to figure out the rest. Hehe... I believe in you!"

After Bai Ziyang took the account book and flipped through it twice, he said helplessly: "I think I still agree with the generals' idea. Let's grab it!"

Ye Zhao pretended to be busy and didn't hear anything. After a while, he suddenly remembered something and looked up and said, "My cousin wrote to me before and asked me to go there and give me something. I don't have time here, so you can go there for me."