Li Yanqing immediately stood by the bank of the Yellow River, silently staring at the surging Yellow River. Compared to the last time he crossed the river, the water of the Yellow River in autumn was slightly slower, but deeper and heavier, wrapped in the power of nature that humans could not resist, and winded towards the south.

A fleet of dozens of large ships was anchored at the dock of Dinghu County, waiting to carry the Song army across the river. Several goshawks hovered over the Yellow River, quickly crossing the Yellow River, and flew southeastward.

"Is Li Chanjun worried about this battle?" A low voice came from behind.

When Li Yanqing turned around, it was Yang Zaixing standing behind him. Although Yang Zaixing had a close relationship with him when he was in Bianjing, when he arrived at Hedong Road, Li Yanqing clearly felt that Yang Zaixing was alienated from him.

Of course, Li Yanqing could understand Yang Zaixing's ambitions. He shouldered the responsibility of the Yang family's revival and must follow Zhong Shidao firmly. He was also worried that he would have too deep a relationship with him, which would affect Zhong Shidao's trust in him.

"Of course I'm a little worried. I'm the head of the Intelligence Department, but I know nothing about Xixia, and I feel guilty!"

"Li Chengjun did a very good job, and the general praised him. He was not guilty of the intelligence department of Xixia because the intelligence department was established too late, not because Li Chengjun had a mistake. Li Chengjun did not have to blame himself."

Li Yanqing smiled faintly and asked, "Does Brother Yang have something to do with me?"

Yang Zaixing nodded, "Master General has something to ask for joining the army, please follow me!"

The two turned their horses and ran towards the camp outside Dinghu City one by one. Soon, they entered the camp and came to the central army's tent.

"Qi Zheng, Li joined the army here!" Yang Zaixing reported in front of the tent.

"Please come in!"

Yang Zaixing turned around and waved his hand to Li Yanqing, "Please join the army, please!"

Li Yanqing quickly walked into the tent, and saw Zhong Shidao standing in front of the map with his hands in thought without saying a word, thinking about something, Li Yanqing did not dare to interrupt the head coach's contemplation, so he stood quietly aside. After a long time, Zhong Shidao woke up from the contemplation. He looked back at Li Yanqing and smiled apologetically: "It's like this when people are old, it's easy to get distracted. I want to congratulate Li on joining the army first."

Zhong Shidao passed a document and handed it to Li Yanqing, "This is a document from the Ministry of Personnel that has just been sent from Taiyuan. It has been promoted to a group of officials. You have made great contributions to arresting Hedong Road and promoted to Xuanfenglang."

Xuan Fenglang was from the seventh rank, and the original rank of the eighth rank, which was really beyond Li Yanqing's expectations. He had only been promoted to the level after half a year of entering the officialdom, and it would take at least three years for ordinary local officials to have the opportunity to be promoted.

Zhong Shidao smiled and said, "I have said that it is easy to get promoted in the army. Generally, you can get promoted one level in one year. It is indeed rare for you to get promoted in half a year. Generally, it is the emperor who specifically approves this opportunity. It seems that the emperor is very satisfied with the results of your Intelligence Department."

"Without the Grand Marshal's performance as a humble position, the emperor would not know these trivial matters. The Grand Marshal's performance should be thanked for his kindness."

Li Yanqing knew in his heart that not every contribution in the army was reported to the emperor, but usually he would remember the merits and finally he was rewarded. Mr. Zhong expressed his merits to himself in order to promote himself. He was really grateful to Mr. Zhong for his love.

Mr. Zhong smiled and said, "If you haven't seized so much wealth, I can't find an excuse to write to the emperor, but it's the result of your own meritorious service."

Li Yanqing nodded and asked again: "Is there any difficulties in the Grand Marshal now?"

Zhong Shidao walked to the map and pointed at Wuding River: "The information you sent yesterday said that the water volume of Wuding River was seriously insufficient compared with previous years. I suspect that the Xixia people built dams in the upper reaches of Wuding River. I am worried that after the army enters the mountain canyon, the Xixia army will open the dam and release water, and the Song army will probably be destroyed!"

"The coach said it well, there is indeed this possibility."

"I know the Western Xia army very well. They have always been vicious and vicious. The Song army likes to win with power, but the Western Xia army is the opposite. They are good at winning with skills. Various vicious and conspiracies emerge one after another. If you are not careful, the Song army will suffer heavy casualties."

"I have a deep understanding of the humble position!"

"Yes! You must be extra vigilant when fighting against the Xixia army. Pay attention to the recent information. Perhaps news will come from the spies ahead."

Li Yanqing returned to his big tent. Although he was promoted to another level, his actual significance was not great. At most, his salary increased a little, but there would be no substantial changes in the power he had.

This is an important difference between military civil servants and local civil servants. Military civil servants are prone to promotion in a short period of time, and are relatively easy to be promoted, but it is very likely that they will not change their positions in ten or eight years. Zong Ze told him that an official who has been a record officer for twenty years has been promoted from the ninth rank to the fifth rank, but the actual official has remained unchanged. This is called promotion but not being moved.

Local civil officials are different. It is difficult for them to be promoted, but once they are promoted, their official positions will change accordingly, from county magistrates to county magistrates, from small counties to large counties, etc. This is called promotion.

It can only be said that each has its pros and cons, but no matter what, Li Yanqing is still very grateful to Master Zhong for his kindness to him.

Because it was a temporary camp, the Intelligence Department had only one big tent. Ten military officers in the tent were busy sorting out the information sent by various spies. Li Yanqing sat down at his small table. Wu Xianliang, the military officer, sent a few pieces of sorted intelligence. "This is just sent by the former army. Several teams of spies said something from different angles. We merged it and discovered a major attempt by the Western Xia army."

"Are the Xixia army building dams on the river?"

Wu Xianliang was stunned, "That's right! How do the supervisor know?"

"It was the Grand Marshal's inference based on his experience, but he didn't know the specific location of the dam."

“At the north entrance of Hu Xiaoxiao!”

Li Yanqing quickly walked to the map and soon found Tiger Roar Gorge on the map. In the middle section of Hengshan, the Song army had to go deeper along the canyon riverbed for more than 70 miles to get there. Once the Western Xia army released water, tens of thousands of Song army would inevitably face a catastrophe.

At this time, Li Yanqing was thinking, what did the name Hu Xiaoxia seem to think of?

Li Yanqing immediately gave an instruction on the information and said to Wu Xianliang: "Immediately copy a copy of the honor to the general."

Wu Xianliang left in a hurry, and Li Yanqing immediately took out a map of the border of Song Xia from the small box he carried with him. This map was one of the last secrets Zhao Yuan revealed, and was made by Zhao Yuan himself. Li Yanqing got it from Zhao Yuan's wife. He had not studied it carefully, but had already looked at it roughly and found that there were many places on this map different from the ones used now.

The map was very big, so he could only spread part of it on the small table and soon found the Hu Xiaoxiao on the map. Zhao Yuan drew a pair of crossed double swords on the location of Hu Xiaoxiao, indicating that the strategic location here is extremely important. However, on the mountain next to him, Zhao Yuan drew a thin red line. The end point of the red line was Hu Xiaoxiao, and a small arrow was marked.

Li Yanqing vaguely remembered where he saw the name of Tiger Soul Gorge. It was indeed in Zhao Yuan's map, but what does this small red line mean? Could it be a small road, around Tiger Soul Gorge from the mountain, or reach above Tiger Soul Gorge?

Li Yanqing pondered for a moment, then ordered: "Let Wang Gui come to see me quickly!"

The next morning, the Song army began to cross the Yellow River on a large scale. The 50,000 army, plus various logistics supplies, logistics support troops, civilians, etc., would take at least three days and three nights to complete the crossing of the river.

But among the first group of river crossing soldiers, a cavalry team of ten people crossed the Yellow River and rushed to the north of Suide Army.

This ten-man cavalry team consists of five intelligence battalion soldiers and five scout soldiers. Their mission is to confirm the path on the map. The Intelligence Department itself also has the function of scouts, but its function is more extensive and involves almost all aspects of the army. The reason why Li Yanqing sent the Intelligence Battalion soldiers and scouts to go with him was because this path was proposed by the Intelligence Department, and he had to confirm with his own subordinates.

The northernmost military camp of the Song army in the Suide Army was called Siwu Village. It is already located in the wild Hengshan Mountains. It is a steep military camp built on the hillside, with about 2,000 troops stationed.

This is one of the few war results left by the previous Song and Xia war. Although it is easy to pull out this military camp with the military strength of Xixia, Xixia was trapped by national strength and did not want to fight with the Song Dynasty again, so this military camp that penetrated deep into Hengshan was preserved.

Ten Song soldiers saved horses in Siwu Village, so they left the River Valley Avenue, instead searched for the road to climb the mountain, and went along the mountain road to the direction of Tiger Roaring Gorge dozens of miles away with difficulty.
Chapter completed!