In the Song Dynasty, there was no law or order.

In early October, there were not just two battles in the northwest, but many.

Because the Song army was essentially divided into two routes, but the western route army acted separately, led by Zhang Kang and Jingtai, attacking Miaochuan City and Zhuoluo City respectively.

At the same time, the Song army in Jingyuan Road launched a cleanup offensive against the border Xixia army, causing heavy losses to the Xixia army in Qingtang and Zhuoluo and the southern areas.

The eastern route was jointly organized by Huanqing Road and Fuyan Road to harass the territory of Xixia. Tens of thousands of Song troops were divided into small units and attacked the forts and towers in Xixia territory at the battalion level.

In addition to the city, all military facilities in the wild were the targets of the Song army, which frightened the Xixia people on the border and evacuated and ran back to the city to hide.

The Song Dynasty has now cut off the Song-Xia trade. The Song people carried guns and rode on the grassland, and the Xixia people could only be beaten and had no power to fight back.

After all, the only long-range means of the Xixia people was artillery. If they met in a field battle, they would be shot and spread out before they could get within a mile of the Song people's muskets. They were really unable to compete.

The two sides attacked each other in a crisscross manner, and the Xixia army in the wild on the border was temporarily cleared. Some cities were still heavily guarded, relying entirely on the artillery built by Xixia itself.

Ren Fu, the general manager of the Fuyan Road on the eastern front, led more than 10,000 troops and horses, repeatedly went out of the border, constantly harassed Xixia, and seemed to have the intention of going deep into the Xia territory.

The front line was deadlocked for a while.

Just as the situation in the northwest seemed complicated, but in fact it gradually became clear, and the Song Dynasty gradually gained the upper hand, the Liao-Song battle in the northeast direction also slowly kicked off.

Also in early October, in the Dengzhou Bay on the east road of Jingdong, a Song Dynasty naval fleet raised its sails and headed northward.

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

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

According to the "Xuanhe Fengshi Gaoli Tujing" written by the navigator Xu Jing during the Xuanhe period of the Northern Song Dynasty, the Northern Song Dynasty already had a single-keel pointed-bottom ship, called "Fuchuan".

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

Including the Fuchuan battleships that are more than 60 meters long, more than 20 meters wide, and have a displacement of more than 1,000 tons.

There are also Flying Tiger frigates that are more than 40 meters long, more than 10 meters wide, and have a displacement of more than 800 tons.

And the Haigu attack ship that is more than 30 meters long, 8 meters wide, and has a displacement of more than 600 tons.

The rest of the assault ships, assault ships, landing ships, combat ships, supply ships, and logistics ships with a displacement of 200 to 500 tons.

A naval fleet has 5,000 people, with a Fuchuan battleship as the main ship, equipped with 24 wheel paddles, 50 rowing sailors, 27 cannons, and three large sails, which can accommodate more than 400 people as a whole.

Add to that two Flying Tiger frigates, five Sea Gull attack ships, more than 20 assault ships, assault ships, landing ships, supply ships, etc., and the total tonnage of a naval fleet is about 10,000 tons.

This tonnage is definitely not good compared with later generations, not even a fraction of an aircraft carrier formation, and even worse than the early Ming Dynasty.

For example, Zheng He's treasure ship was more than 150 meters long, more than 60 meters wide, with a displacement of more than 3,000 tons, and could accommodate more than 1,000 people. The tonnage of the remaining escort ships was already similar to the "Fu Ship" of the Song Dynasty.

But at least at the moment, the Song Dynasty naval fleet equipped with artillery is already invincible.

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

It's a bit ironic.

Zhao Jun established the navy in the name of protecting marine trade and combating pirates.

Initially, there were two fleets, namely the Huainan Taizhou Zhenhai Navy and the Hebei Binzhou Dinghai Navy, plus the original Song Dynasty Pinghai Navy in Dengzhou, which was three fleets.

After that, four more fleets were added, namely the Weihai Navy in Dengzhou, Shandong, the Ninghai Navy in Taizhou, Liangzhe, the Anhai Navy in Quanzhou, Fujian, and the Jinghai Navy in Guangzhou, Guangdong, with a total size of seven fleets and more than 30,000 people.

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

The scale of pirates is very different from that of the Song Dynasty Navy. The pirates in the coastal waters have almost been wiped out by the Song Dynasty Navy. Only the pirates of Japan and Goryeo occasionally appear near the sea trade routes of the two countries.

This situation also caused some complaints within the court. Regarding the court's heavy investment in building the navy, many officials wrote to request the abolition of it because it was a waste of money and had no use.

However, these suggestions were ignored by the Political System Council, including Zhao Zhen, who issued an edict to reprimand these officials. After seeing the importance of maritime hegemony in later generations, even Zhao Jun did not need to come forward, and naturally the emperor and many prime ministers endorsed his decision.

The fleets dispatched by the Song Dynasty this time are the Binzhou Dinghai Navy, Dengzhou Pinghai Navy and Weihai Navy. The Weihai Navy has already gone east to help Goryeo, and the Dinghai Navy and Pinghai Navy will go north to attack the heartland of the Liao Kingdom.

At this moment, Di Qing stood on the deck of the main ship "Huguo Ship", with his cloak fluttering behind him. He is used to fighting on land, but it is the first time to fight on the sea.

Standing next to him was Hu Yan Shouyong, the commander of the Dengzhou Pinghai Navy.

Hu Yan Shouyong saw that Di Qing had been looking at the distant ocean for more than an hour since he went out to sea, so he smiled and said, "General Di should not have been out to sea before."

"Yes, I haven't been out, and I haven't fought a sea battle, which makes me a little nervous."

Di Qing was quite honest.

He admitted the fact that he was not good at naval warfare very straightforwardly.

But he didn't need to lie, because since he destroyed Annan, he had been promoted to the deputy envoy of the Privy Council for his merits.

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.

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.

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

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.

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

"ah?"

Di Qing was dumbfounded and stared at him.

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."

"Why?"

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 it was the best choice for Liaoxia and Xia to attack the allies of the Song Dynasty and force the Song Dynasty to take the initiative to expose their flaws. This does not mean that they knew the location of the main force of Liaoxia and 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 Mansion as the core, 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. If he attacked forcefully, he would die.

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 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 at 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 out 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 Sixteenth Prefecture of Yanyun without any effort, the importance of Yuguan was very high. 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 over, 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 some Han soldiers who were familiar with water and recruited nearby. On weekdays, they would do some work such as garrisoning in the coastal cities or sailing around the coastal waters.

Now that Liao and Song were going to war again, they saw that in the northeast, groups of Pi Shi troops were crossing the Yushui River and heading towards Xijin.

"Kid, how many groups of Liao people are there?"

A middle-aged soldier on the top of the city was whispering to a young soldier next to him.

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

"It's a pity that the war suddenly broke out now, and the border and the sea were blocked, and no one was allowed to enter or leave, otherwise we could spread the news."

"How about I go to the agreed place tonight to have a look?"

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

The middle-aged soldier denied.

The Imperial City Division has certainly done something in these years.

Due to the comprehensive opening of trade between Song and Liao in the past few years, the business on both sides has flourished rapidly, and many Liao people and Song people came to each other's border to do business.

But naturally, there are many detectives on both sides who disguise their identities and go to the enemy country in the name of trade, but in fact they are insiders.

The Liao people have many spies, and the Song Dynasty has no fewer spies than them.

For example, these two soldiers of the neighboring navy were developed from the commander of the Imperial City Division of a smuggling ship.

In order to pay less taxes, there must be many smuggling ships in the Song-Liao border trade.

The Liao Kingdom welcomes them very much, because the sulfur smuggled from Japan is much cheaper than that sold by Song Dynasty merchants from orthodox channels.

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

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

In August, Liao invaded Goryeo from the south. In September, the Song army had already begun to prepare for war. At the end of September, the Song court ordered the cessation of the Song-Liao and Song-Xia trade markets. Many people speculated that war would start again, so the border became depressed again.

Originally, the superiors of the two soldiers often traveled between Cangzhou of Song and Pingzhou of Liao, one to engage in business activities and the other to engage in espionage activities. But now they are forced not to set off, so that the intelligence cannot be brought back.

The two were discussing in a low voice, and suddenly heard various shouting sounds in the distance, and they turned their heads quickly.

They saw that the soldiers near the east city wall seemed to be quite turbulent, and many people were curious and gathered there. The two ran to the direction of the east city wall and looked in the direction pointed by the soldiers who were shouting on the city wall.

They saw a small black dot appear on the sea level in the distance.

Is it a smuggling ship?

This thought came to the minds of the two Song people at the first time.

Unexpectedly, when the war was about to start, there were still fearless smuggling ships coming. I just don’t know if it was their superiors or other smuggling ships.

“Great, another fleet of Song merchants came. I’ve been eating so much these days.”

“We must buy some wine. The wine of the Song people is very good, especially the strong wine called Shaochun. I heard that it was brewed in Bashu during the Tang Dynasty. Once you drink it, your whole body will be hot. Drink this wine to warm your body in winter.”

“Not only that, I heard that their emperor also made a lot of wine. Alas, the wine of the Song people is good, but it’s a pity that it’s too expensive.”

“Anyway, the war is about to start, so why not just rob them.”

“Are you crazy to say that you rob? Once you rob them, no more ships will come. Only when you are at war, you have to worship them like Yay.”

The soldiers of the neighboring navy inside and outside the city talked a lot. Many people touched their pockets and looked eagerly at the black spot in the distance.

Some impatient officers even went down to the city, opened the south gate, and ran to the port to wait.

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

After that, Zhao Zhen established a market and produced many kinds of liquor such as sorghum liquor, distilled liquor, and wheat liquor through various methods, which were sold well overseas for a while.

Especially now that it is winter, drinking some strong liquor is the most comfortable time, so the Liao people in the north like the wine of the Song Dynasty very much.

There are not many defenders in Guangning City, only a few hundred people, and many people stare at the distant sea with eager eyes.

Not only Guangning City, but also Yuguan, a few kilometers away from Guangning, 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, the defenders of Yuguan, after being relieved of the latest batch of Liao troops entering the pass, also saw the black spots on the sea level in the south. Many people were addicted to alcohol and also left their posts and came to the seaside dock to wait.

For a time, from Shanhaiguan to the large area of ​​Qinhuangdao in the rear, the seaside docks and ports had gathered nearly a thousand Liao people one after another, anxiously waiting for the arrival of those ships.

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

Dozens of ships of different sizes slowly appeared on the sea surface.

At first, the Liao soldiers were full of excitement.

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

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

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

"What on earth are they?"

"Could it be?"

A thought quickly came to everyone's mind.

Could these ships be?

"Enemy attack!"

Almost at the same time when the Liao soldiers on the seashore were getting restless, the officer guarding the city on Guangning City shouted sharply and blew the horn at the same time.

The city guard had good eyesight because he could see far from the top of the city. When the ship was about eight or nine miles away from them, although he could not see clearly, he clearly saw that the red flag of the Song Dynasty was flying on the enemy's ship!