Great Song Super Scholar

Chapter 674 The War Begins

The vast sea of ​​​​whales.A huge fleet consisting of hundreds of five-thousand-stone steam warships is sailing to the north.

Whale Sea is the Sea of ​​Japan today, while the Liao Kingdom is called the East Sea. The fleet has passed through the narrowest strait and headed for the northern part of Jingzhou. This fleet departed from Han County, Kunzhou, and was fully loaded with [-] Song troops. Cavalry, go to Pingyi City in Jingzhou.

Pingyi City is located in the northernmost part of Jingzhou, facing the mouth of the Black Water. The construction started in March last year and was completed in October last year. The circumference is about [-] miles. The city is strong and strong. Currently there are no people in the city, only [-] permanent troops , stored a large amount of grain and grass materials.

Without this logistics base, it would take five or six days to travel from Kunzhou, two thousand miles away, even by steamship, and food supply would become a major problem.

The plan to establish a base in Jingzhou and attack the hinterland of Liao from Blackwater was proposed by Fan Ning more than ten years ago, and it was not finally implemented until today.

There are many conditions that need to be gradually matured to be achieved, such as steam ships, so that the fleet can go retrograde, and a supply base must be established in Jingzhou to ensure the food supply of the army.

Now, it's all coming of age.

The chief general in charge of this battle on the northern front is the staff battalion Sima Zhang Chou, who is also Fan Ning's most trusted right-hand man. Although the Song Army failed to prevent the Jurchens from being wiped out, the responsibility does not lie with Zhang Chou. He was preparing for the battle in Kunzhou at that time.

In the Song Dynasty, civil servants were the main generals, and military generals were assisted. Zhang Wei's deputy general was Liu Kun, who was also a veteran in his fifties.

Zhang Wei stood on the deck, watching the waves in the distance, but fell into deep thought.

At this time, Liu Kun walked slowly to his side, and sighed softly: "Who would have thought that we would have entered the old nest of the Liao Kingdom from the extreme north!"

Zhang Wei nodded slowly, "This will be a bloody journey!"

"Zhang Sima, war itself is bloody."

"I know, from the day I was ordered, I knew what I was going to face, but killing women and children is not what I want to do."

He looked back at Liu Kun, "What does General Liu think?"

Liu Kun said indifferently: "Women and children are burdens on the battlefield, not wealth. I agree with Zhang Sima's suggestion. It is not necessary to kill them, but to kill all the men."

Zhang Yi didn't speak anymore. At this time, a soldier pointed to the distance and shouted: "That's the harbor, we've arrived!"

Zhang Yi also saw the majestic Pingyi City, and couldn't help but praise: "It's magnificent! The starting point for leveling Diyi."

"Woo—" The ship blew its whistle, and a low-pitched horn sounded from the head of Pingyi City to welcome the arrival of the fleet.

Hundreds of warships can berthed in the bay, and it freezes in October, and it doesn’t thaw until March of the next year. Half of the year is spent in the cold world of ice and snow.

The military city was built on a cliff, and a general came down from the cliff with a dozen soldiers, stepped forward and saluted, "For humble positions, see Zhang Sima, and see General Liu!"

This general is called Wu Baisheng, and he is a commander. He is the rotating chief general of Jingzhou this year. The garrison in Pingyi City is trying out a rotation system. Half of the defense is changed every year. Staying in the cold Jingzhou for a long time has a great impact on the soldiers.

"General Wu, is the guide mentioned in your eagle letter here?" Zhang Wei asked.

"It's in the military city, please follow me to the military city to rest!"

Twenty thousand troops and war horses disembarked one after another and entered the military city to rest.

Zhang Wei followed Wu Baisheng to a courtyard in Juncheng. There were soldiers standing guard outside. Zhang Wei walked into the courtyard and saw two old people sitting under a big tree basking in the sun.

Just last month, soldiers of the Song Army patrolling the mouth of the Heishui River found a dozen canoes carrying a group of old and weak women and children, about 30 people. They were killed, the old and the weak were also executed, women and children were assigned to the Khitan and Xiren tribes as slaves, almost none survived, only a small number of old and weak women and children from the Baishan tribe escaped, and those who were discovered by the soldiers of the Song Army were part of them .

Wu Baisheng invited the two elderly people into the room, introduced Zhang Yi to them, and a soldier interpreted for them.

"They said that the men were all killed. It was too miserable. Groups were tied up and their heads were chopped off and thrown into the black water. The old people were also executed. After the women were collectively humiliated by their army, they were sent to the Khitan tribes as slaves and children. Send it along too."

Zhang Yu said to the soldiers: "Ask them, are they familiar with the places where these Khitan tribes live?"

The soldier asked a few words, and said to Zhang Wei: "They said that they were hunters more than ten years ago, and they are familiar with every inch of the land. They know the gathering places of every Khitan tribe."

The Khitan is also divided into raw and cooked. The cooked live in the four capitals and are greatly influenced by Sinicization. The raw is still a traditional tribe. It adheres to tradition and makes a living by fishing and hunting. Many fierce Khitan infantry are from the Shengfan tribe. Li expropriation.

An old man said cautiously: "We are willing to lead the way, but when will we start?"

Zhang Wei smiled slightly and said, "Leave in a month at the latest, and I'm also waiting for the order to send troops. We just have to wait patiently."

At the same time that the Song Dynasty was actively preparing for war, Liao's war preparation was also accelerating. The large sum of wealth obtained from the hands of the emperor's relatives solved the urgent financial needs of Liao, but Yelu Hongji knew very well that this money would not last long. However, if you want to restore the former prosperity of the Liao Kingdom, you have to rely on the annual coins of the Song Dynasty to maintain it.

The amount of yearly coins that Yelu Hongji was expecting in his heart changed again and again. The year before last, he asked Da Song for one million taels of silver, one million bolts of silk, and 20 dans of tea cakes, but not now. The yearly coins he was looking forward to It is 300 million taels of silver, 300 million bolts of silk and 50 dan tea cakes.

But the old coin is only one of the dividends of this war, and the wealth and population of the Song Dynasty must be plundered, and more land must be acquired. These are all wealth that need to be won by war.

In the room, Yelu Hongji listened to the report of Xiao Jiuge, the privy envoy of the Northern Academy. The Emperor of Song Dynasty was inspecting the war preparation in Taiyuan. Yelu Hongji squinted and smiled as he looked at Taiyuan City on the map.

He is well aware of the Song Dynasty's war preparations in Taiyuan. Millions of shi of grain were transported into the city. There were at least [-] to [-] garrisons in the city, and hundreds of thousands of people all moved south. Like Hebei, the Song Dynasty implemented a strong wall and cleared the wilderness in Taiyuan. It was Fan Ning's method, Yelu Hongji was very familiar with it, but Fan Ning was still a little too young, after experiencing the terrible lesson last time, how could the Liao army spend a large amount of troops on attacking the city again.

Only when soldiers come to the city of Bianliang is the best attack, forcing the Song Dynasty to sign the alliance under the city.

After pondering for a long time, Yelu Hongji turned his head and said to a group of important ministers: "Ten days later the troops will be dispatched!"

In the second year of Pingxia of the Great Song Dynasty, and the seventh year of Xianyong of the Liao Kingdom, on the seventh day of May, the Liao Kingdom invested 20 troops to launch a full-scale attack by the Song Army.

The army of the Liao Kingdom was divided into two lines, the east and the west. On the west line, Yeluna, the king of the North Academy, also served as the envoy to the west. He led 12 cavalry from Datong to the south and went straight to Taiyuan.

Zhao Xu, the Emperor of the Song Dynasty who was inspecting the war preparations in Taiyuan, had left Taiyuan by boat five days ago and was on his way back to the capital. Three days later, an army of 12 broke through the Loufan Pass and rushed to Taiyuan overwhelmingly. The entire northern part of Taiyuan was covered by a boundless Boundless murderous intent was completely enveloped.

On the eastern front, Xiao Weixin, the privy envoy of the Southern Academy, was the commander-in-chief, and Gao Yuanji, the Jiedu envoy of the Huaihua Army, was the forward general, leading an army of [-] across the sea to attack Dengzhou.

The navy powerhouse located in the middle of the Yalu River has 150 five-thousand-stone ships purchased from Japan, which are enough to carry [-] troops and a large number of siege equipment.

The war horses are preparing for the second batch of delivery. The first task of the Liao army is to capture Dengzhou and make Dengzhou a foothold for the Liao Kingdom on the Shandong Peninsula.

Yelu Hongji was also very aware that this was an extremely risky military operation, so he strictly guarded this battle plan as the top secret of the Liao Kingdom, and only a dozen or so important officials knew about it.

The base of the Song Dynasty navy was in Laizhou, about two hundred miles away from Dengzhou. When the Song army discovered a large number of Liao warships in the open sea, it was too late to intercept them.

Yelu Hongji's deduction was not bad. If the Song Dynasty did not know the plan of the Liao Army in advance, it is very likely that the Liao Kingdom would have a time difference and the landing would be successful.

It's a pity that Yelu Hongji never imagined that the two important ministers around him had secretly betrayed him and leaked this top-secret information to the Song Dynasty.

In the early morning, the Yalu River was very windy and the north wind was blowing, which was very suitable for the fleet to go south. Eighty thousand troops were lining up to board the ship, including [-] Khitan troops, [-] Xi troops and [-] Bo navy troops. The soldiers only carried Ten days of dry food, in fact, they will arrive in Dengzhou tomorrow morning.

There are more than [-] boatmen on each large ship who are responsible for pulling the sails and steering the steering. After a while, all the [-] troops have lined up on board. The first batch of coach Xiao Weixin did not accompany the ship, but Gao Yuanji led the [-] troops across the sea.

Xiao Weixin gave an order, "Let's go!"

'Woo——' the horn blew, and 150 large ships put down their bundled sailboats one after another, and with the help of the wind, they sailed away from the shore one after another and headed for the mighty Yellow Sea hundreds of miles away.

(End of this chapter)