People in the Song Dynasty were lawless

Chapter 367 The flag of the Song Dynasty is flying
In early October, there were actually not just two wars in the northwest, but many.

Because the Song army was essentially divided into two groups, it was just that the army on the west route acted separately, led by Zhang Kang and Jingtai, and attacked Miaochuan City and Zhuolu City respectively.

At the same time, the Song Army, cooperating with the Jingyuan Road, launched a cleanup offensive against the Xixia Army on the border, causing heavy losses to the Xixia Army in Qingtang, Zhuoluo and South.

On the East Road, Huanqing Road and Yanyan Road jointly organized harassment in Xixia. Tens of thousands of Song troops were divided into parts and attacked the fortresses and watchtowers in Xixia in battalion-level units.

Except for the city, all military facilities in the wild were targeted by the Song army, which frightened the Xixia people on the border and evacuated one after another and ran back to the city to hide.

The Song Dynasty has now cut off the mutual trade between Song and Xia. The Song people are galloping on the grasslands with guns and horses, while the Xixia people can only be beaten and have no power to fight back.

After all, the Xixia people's only long-range means was artillery. If they met in the field, they would use cold weapons to fight the Song people with muskets. Before they got within a mile, they would have been shot all over. It was really impossible to compete.

The two sides attacked each other fiercely, and the Xixia army in the border fields was temporarily wiped out. Some cities were heavily guarded, all relying on Xixia's own artillery for defense.

Ren Fu, the commander-in-chief of troops and horses at Fuyan Road on the eastern front, led more than 10,000 troops and left the border many times, constantly harassing Xixia, and seemed to intend to penetrate into the Xia territory.

The battle lines were in a stalemate for a while.

The remaining assault ships, assault ships, landing ships, combat ships, supply ships, and logistics ships with a displacement of 2 to 500 tons are several.

A naval fleet has a strength of 5,000 men, with a Fuchuan battleship as the main ship, equipped with twenty-four wheel oars, fifty rowing sailors, twenty-seven cannons, and three large sails. The overall fleet can accommodate four people. More than a hundred people.

On this basis, the Song Dynasty built a series of battleships.

Hu Yanshouyong saw that Di Qing had been looking at the distant ocean for more than an hour since he went to sea, so he smiled and said, "Shuai Di probably hasn't been to the sea much before."

When Huyan Shouyong saw Di Qing looking at him in surprise, he quickly said: "It's not just our navy, other navies don't know how to fight at all."

If you include part of the navy stationed on Tsushima Island and Jeju Island, the total tonnage is about 80,000, and the number of people is also 40,000.

Di Qing was dumbfounded and stared at him.

Hu Yanshou scratched his head and said, "To be honest with Di Shuai, we actually don't know how to fight at sea."

During the Tang and Song Dynasties, the development of ships was in full swing.

However, the scale of pirates was vastly different compared to that of the Song Navy. The pirates in the offshore areas had almost been wiped out by the Song Navy. Only bandits from the two countries occasionally appeared near the sea trade routes of Japan and Goryeo.

In the Song Dynasty, the promotion of generals was no longer to a certain captain or a certain general, but to the three yamen or the privy council, such as the three major commanders of the three yamen and the privy council envoy.

There is also the Flying Tiger frigate, which is more than 40 meters long, more than 10 meters wide, and has a displacement of more than 800 tons.

Therefore, theoretically speaking, all the navy of the Song Dynasty is now under his control, and his rank is the superior of Hu Yanshou's superior. Even if he says that he does not know how to fight at sea, there is no need to worry about someone seizing power.

But there was no need for him to lie, because since he destroyed Annan, he had been promoted to deputy privy envoy due to his merits.

Including the Fuchuan battleship, which is more than 60 meters long, more than 20 meters wide, and has a displacement of more than 1,000 tons.

According to the "Illustrated Book of Xuanhe's Envoy to Korea" written by Xu Jing, a navigator during the Xuanhe reign of the Northern Song Dynasty, there was already a single-keel pointed-bottomed boat in the Northern Song Dynasty, named "Fu Chuan".

And the Sea Falcon attack ship is more than thirty meters long, eight meters wide, and has a displacement of more than 600 tons.

There is no rival in the entire ocean, or even in the world.

Di Qing is quite honest.

Also in early October, in the Dengzhou Bay on Jingdong East Road, a Song Dynasty navy fleet raised its sails and headed north in a mighty manner.

But at least for now, the Song Dynasty naval fleet equipped with artillery is already invincible in the world.

"what?"

It's just that the third government office is a false position, and it can be regarded as taking a back seat and not taking power. The Privy Council is different. It is still the Privy Council and belongs to the real power department.

Next to him stood Hu Yanshouyong, the commander of the Dengzhou Ping Navy.

Coupled with two Flying Tiger frigates, five Sea Falcon attack ships, and more than 20 assault ships, assault ships, landing ships, supply ships, etc., the total tonnage of a naval fleet is about just over 10,000 tons.

It sounds a bit ironic.

The fleets dispatched by the Song Dynasty this time are the Binzhou Ding Navy, Dengzhou Ping Navy and Wei Navy. The Wei Navy has already gone east to go to Goryeo for reinforcements, and the Ding Navy and the Ping Navy will go north to attack the hinterland of Liao Kingdom.

Just when the situation in the northwest seemed complicated, it became increasingly clear, and the Song Dynasty gradually gained the upper hand. The Liao-Song Campaign in the northeast also slowly began.

This tonnage is definitely not comparable to that of later generations. It is not even a fraction of an aircraft carrier fleet, and it is even worse than the early Ming Dynasty.

"I've never been out or fought in a naval battle, so I'm a little uneasy."

Initially there were two fleets, namely the Taizhou Navy in Huainan, the Ding Navy in Binzhou in Hebei, and the Ping Navy in Dengzhou during the Song Dynasty, making it three fleets.

But these suggestions were ignored by the Constitutional Yuan, including Zhao Zhen, who issued an order to reprimand these officials. After seeing the importance of maritime hegemony in later generations, even Zhao Jun did not need to come forward. Naturally, the emperor and many prime ministers would do it. Endorsement of his decision.

At this moment, Di Qing stood on the deck of the main ship "National Protector", with his cloak fluttering behind him. I am used to fighting on land, but this is my first time fighting on the ocean.

Since the first year of Qingli in the Song Dynasty, Zhao Jun has been continuously expanding the scale of the navy and building new warships.

For example, the Bao Ship of Zheng He's voyages to the West was more than 150 meters long, more than 60 meters wide, had a displacement of more than 3,000 tons, and could accommodate more than 1,000 people. The tonnage of the other escort ships was almost the same as the "Fu Ship" of the Song Dynasty. .

"Why?"

Afterwards, four more were added successively, including the Dengzhou Wei Navy in Shandong, the Ning Navy in Taizhou and Zhejiang, the An Navy in Quanzhou in Fujian, and the Jing Navy in Guangzhou, Guangdong. The total size reached seven fleets with more than 30,000 people.

This situation has also caused some criticism within the imperial court. Many officials have written to request that the imperial court spend a lot of money to build a navy, because it is a waste of money and has no use.

During this dispatch, Di Qing served as deputy envoy of the Privy Council and as commander-in-chief of the navy's troops.

He readily admitted the fact that he was not good at naval combat.

Zhao Jun established the navy in the name of protecting maritime trade and combating piracy.

Di Qing wondered, what use are you to this guy who doesn't know how to fight?
"Because I haven't been beaten before."

Hu Yanshou spread his hands and said: "The sea is full of warships and merchant ships of our Song Dynasty. Even if there are pirates, their small broken ships don't even need artillery. If they hit them directly, they can be crushed. How can we fight?" ?”

"Forehead"

Di Qing thought the same thing. The Song Dynasty Navy had no rivals since its establishment.

Because the opponent has not established a navy at all.

Then wouldn’t their role be completely useless?

So rather than saying that he doesn't know how to fight, it's better to say that although he has training, he doesn't have any actual combat experience.

This is also one of the disadvantages.

"It doesn't matter. This is a landing operation anyway. Our mission is to get close to the border of the Liao Kingdom, occupy Yuguan, and cut off the reinforcements of the main force of the Liao Kingdom."

Di Qing turned around and comforted Hu Yanshou.

This is also true.

It’s not that the Song Dynasty was able to make calculations. From a grand strategic point of view, they found that Liao Xia’s attack on the allies of the Song Dynasty and forcing the Song Dynasty to take the initiative to expose its flaws was the best choice. This does not mean that they knew the location of the main force of Liao Xia.

What's more, both Liao and Xixia hid their cards very well, and used various methods to cover up the main force, so that even the Song army's scouts could not figure out the situation.

Information warfare is like this. Both sides are fictitious and real. For both the enemy and ourselves, all kinds of messy information will be placed in the Constitutional Yuan, and it is not easy to make a quick judgment.

The two generals who did not know how to fight at sea took the fleet northward in a mighty manner. When passing through the Bohai Bay, they met up with the Ding Navy. The two fleets totaled only about 10,000 people, but they had five or six large and small ships. There are more than ten ships, and the momentum is huge.

A few days later, Fan Zhongyan, who was far away in Zhuozhou, led more than 100,000 troops and went north to start a war against the Liao Kingdom on the grounds that Goryeo and the Song Dynasty had signed a mutual assistance treaty and the Liao Kingdom was attacking the Song Dynasty's allies.

As expected, the Liao Kingdom increased its defense, with Xijin Prefecture as the core, and defense lines were deployed in the surrounding Liangxiang, Wanping, Yuhe, Gaoliang River and other places.

The two sides quickly entered a confrontation stage.

In the midst of this tense situation, the Song Army took the lead in opening fire. But it was not Fan Zhongyan on the front line who started the fight.

After all, Fan Zhongyan had just started to attack, and he was surrounded by Liao artillery. He would die if he attacked forcefully.

Therefore, after entering the territory of the Liao Kingdom, Fan Zhongyan adopted the old method and stationed several large camps on the outskirts of the Liao army in Liangxiang, Wanping, Yuhe and other places.

The camp was outside the range of the Liao army. They built high walls, installed artillery, and constantly transported grain and grass. It seemed that they wanted to fight a protracted war with the Liao army.

Almost as soon as the Liao and Song Dynasties entered into an exciting confrontation, the Hebei Ding Navy and the Shandong Ping Navy slowly appeared in Pingzhou, Nanjing Prefecture of the Liao Kingdom.

Pingzhou is the area from Kaiping to Qinhuangdao in later generations. At this time, Yuguan was also the famous Shanhaiguan in later generations.

In the early morning of October 9th, in the early winter, the weather in the north became increasingly cold.

In Guangning County, Pingzhou, the cold winter wind caused the sea to roar. There was a medium-sized port on the shore, and there were some ships parked in the port.

The Liao Kingdom actually had some naval forces, but the number was not large, and they only operated in the coastal waters and never went to the open sea. Among them, a navy was stationed in Yingzhou, Guangning and other places, called the neighboring navy.

In addition, there are several troops stationed in Liao Xing Army, Xing Shan Army, Haiyang Army, etc., mainly to guard Yuguan, an important pass.

Although the Liao Kingdom obtained the Yanyun Sixteen Prefectures without any effort, Yuguan was of very high importance. The Yanshan Mountains to the north of Yanyun blocked the offensive between the White Mountains and Black Waters in the northeast and was an important strategic mountain range in the Yanyun area.

If the Liao Kingdom wanted to transport troops southward, there were only two most convenient ways. One was Guihua Prefecture, which was later known as Zhangjiakou. The second one is to go through Yuguan.

Yelvzong really wanted to deceive others. When he went to Tokyo Road, the main army followed him. Otherwise, the Song people would have detected that the Liao Pishi Army did not follow him, and they would definitely suspect that there was a fraud.

So at this time, it was clear that Yelu Zongzhen himself was in Tokyo, the Pishi Army was also in Tokyo, and the main force of the Liao Kingdom was attacking Goryeo.

Now when we arrive in Nanjing secretly, we must pass through Yuguan.

Above the county seat of Guangning County, soldiers from the neighboring navy were looking boredly at the top of the city in the direction of Yushui (Shihe) in the northeast.

Although they are nominally naval forces, since the last time the Liao Kingdom organized a fleet and dragged all the Liao Kingdom's few thousand naval forces there and disappeared when they went to Japan to get rid of the Song Dynasty's sulfur trade, the neighboring navy has It exists in name only.

These neighboring navies were also recently recruited Han soldiers who were familiar with water. On weekdays, they did some work such as garrisoning in seaside cities, or sailing around in offshore waters.

Now that the Liao and Song Dynasties were going to war again, they saw that in the northeast, batches of Pishi troops were crossing Yushui and heading towards Xijin.

"My dear, this is the first batch of Liao people."

A middle-aged soldier on the city wall was asking a young soldier next to him in a low voice.

The young soldier whispered: "Second Uncle, from the day before yesterday to today, there have been four batches, no less than 20,000."

"It's a pity that a war has suddenly started. The borders and seas are blocked and no entry or exit is allowed. Otherwise, we can spread the news."

"How about I go visit the agreed place tonight?"

"Forget it, if the people above find you leaving your post without permission again, I'm afraid they will suspect you."

The middle-aged soldier denied.

The Imperial City Division has certainly done nothing in recent years.

Due to the comprehensive opening of trade between Song and Liao in the past few years, commerce between the two sides flourished rapidly, and many people from Liao and Song came to each other's borders to do business.

However, there are naturally many agents on both sides who disguise their identities and go to the enemy's country in the name of trade, but in fact they are internal agents.

The Liao people had many spies, and the spies of the Song Dynasty were no less than them.

These two soldiers from the neighboring navy were developed from a commander of the Imperial City Division of a smuggling ship.

In the border trade between Song and Liao, there were bound to be many smuggling ships in order to reduce taxes.

The Liao Kingdom welcomed them very much, because the sulfur smuggled from Japan was much cheaper than that sold by Song merchants through orthodox channels.

Pingzhou is where the most smuggling ships come. After the Song Dynasty severely cracked down on smuggling ships, border cities such as Guangning and Yingzhou even became very prosperous because of smugglers. There were many prostitutes, restaurants, taverns, and shops.

It's just that the Song Dynasty has been very powerful in cracking down on smuggling ships in the past two years, and the merchants have a very keen sense of smell.

In August, the Liao Kingdom invaded Goryeo in the south. In September, the Song Army had already begun to intensify its troops. At the end of September, the Song Dynasty court ordered to stop the Song, Liao and Song Xia trades. Many people speculated that another war was about to start, so the border became depressed again.

Originally, the superiors of these two soldiers often traveled between Cangzhou in the Song Dynasty and Pingzhou in the Liao Dynasty, firstly to engage in commercial activities, and secondly to engage in espionage activities. But now they are forced not to leave, so the information cannot be brought back.

The two people were discussing in low voices when they suddenly heard various shouts in the distance, and they quickly turned their heads.

They saw that the soldiers near the east city wall seemed to be in quite a commotion. Many people were curious and moved over there. Two people ran to the east city wall and looked in the direction pointed by the shouting soldiers on the wall.

Then I saw a small black dot appearing on the sea level in the distance.

Is it a smuggling ship?
This thought came to the minds of the two Song Dynasty officials for the first time.

Unexpectedly, when the war was about to break out, there were still fearless smuggling ships coming. I just don’t know whether they were their superiors or other smuggling ships.

"Great, another fleet of merchants from the Song Dynasty has arrived. It's almost like a bird's eye here these days."

"You must buy some wine. The wine of the Song Dynasty is very good, especially the strong wine called Shaochun. I heard it was brewed in Bashu during the Tang Dynasty. I will feel hot all over after drinking it. Drinking this wine will keep me warm in winter."

"Not only that, I heard that their emperor also made a lot of wine. Alas, the wine of the Song Dynasty is good, but it is too expensive."

"There's going to be a war anyway, so why not just rob them."

"Are you saying that those who robbed have a brain disease? Once they are robbed, no ships will come here again. It is only during the war that they are sacrificed as if they were nothing."

The neighboring navy soldiers inside and outside the city were talking a lot. Many of them touched their pockets and looked longingly at the black spots in the distance.

There were even some impatient officers who had already descended to the city, opened the south gate, and ran to the port to wait.

After all, a spirit called Shaochun has appeared in Sichuan since the Tang Dynasty.

After that, Zhao Zhen set up a market and through various methods, he produced a lot of sorghum wine, distilled wine, wheat wine and other wines, which were sold overseas for a while.

Especially now that it is winter, it is the most comfortable time to drink some strong wine, so the northern Liao people like the drinks of the Song Dynasty very much.

There are not many defenders in Guangning City, only a few hundred people, and many of them are staring longingly at the sea in the distance.

Not only Guangning City, but also Yuguan, a few kilometers away from Guangning, also has a city, but it is not as big as Guangning City. It has been built since the Tang Dynasty and has a city wall about three miles long from north to south.

At this moment, after the defenders of Yuguan were relieved about the latest batch of Liao troops entering the pass, they also saw the black spots on the sea level in the south. Many people were addicted to wine and also left their posts and came to the seaside. The dock awaits.

For a time, nearly a thousand people from Shanhaiguan and Qinhuangdao were gathered in the seaside docks and ports in the large area from Shanhaiguan to Qinhuangdao, anxiously waiting for the arrival of those ships.

Soon the ships were getting closer and closer, from the initial one black dot, slowly turning into two, three, four...

Dozens of ships of various sizes slowly appeared on the sea level.

At first, the Liao soldiers were full of excitement.

As the number of ships increased, they became more and more aware that something was wrong, and the crowd waiting for drinks became restless.

"Are those merchant ships of the Song Dynasty? When did the Song Dynasty have such a large fleet?"

"Let alone black merchants, even Song official merchant ships don't have that many."

"What the hell are they?"

"Could it be?"

An idea quickly came to everyone's mind.

Could it be these ships?
"Enemy attack!"

Almost at the same time when the Liao soldiers on the seaside were restless, on the Guangning City, the city guarding officers gave a sharp shout and blew the horn at the same time.

The city guarding officer could see far from high up in the city, and the city guarding officer had good eyesight. When the ship approached eight or nine miles away from them, although he could not see very clearly, the man clearly saw that the red ship was flying on the other side's ship. The banner of the Song Dynasty!
(End of this chapter)