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

At the end of Shenshi and the beginning of Youshi, the clouds were dark and the sun was hazy, and the thunderous rainstorm came as expected.

At this time, both Fan Zhongyan in Youyan and Di Qing in Yuguan, more than 200 kilometers away, were aware of the seriousness of the matter.

Rainy days will only greatly reduce the power of the firearms that people in the Song Dynasty relied on. Gunpowder is easily affected by moisture, so be careful when storing and loading it. Although the gun has a waterproof design, wind and rain can still cause various problems with the gun.

For example, the ignition success rate of flint is reduced, the gunpowder is not fully burned due to moisture, causing the gun to misfire, or even if the bullet is fired, the accuracy will be greatly deviated due to the influence of wind and rain.

And not only the muskets, but the artillery will also be affected. Therefore, in this heavy rain, the Song Army's ability to fight in the field will be seriously weakened.

At this moment, outside Yuguan, the sky was as gloomy as ink, as if there was no sunshine. It was obviously only afternoon, but it was gray as if it was approaching dusk.

If you stand at Yuguan and look outside, you will see more than a dozen Liao army camps rolling up and down about five or six miles away from the city. They are not connected together, but scattered and distributed separately.

The number of people in the camp ranged from three to four thousand to ten thousand. A rough estimate of the Song army in the east of Guangyuguan showed that there were at least sixty or seventy thousand Liao troops.

As time went by, all the follow-up troops of the Liao State were blocked east of Yuguan. A large number of Liao troops, gunpowder, and supplies were piled up. They attacked at night, causing great trouble to the Song army.

In the torrential rain, the Liao army camp in the distance suddenly woke up from the deathly silence. With the sound of ping ping, drums and horns, in several camps that were horns with each other, groups of soldiers came from the ramming earth village. A head emerges from behind the crenellation of the wall, a bow is unsheathed and a sword is unsheathed.

Everywhere was the sound of clattering armored leaves, anxious and angry urgings, uniform shouts, short and urgent orders and sharp police whistles.

Xiao Wanli, the new king of Lanling County who stayed in Tokyo of the Liao Kingdom, inherited the title of his elder brother Xiao Pidi. Xiao Pidi was framed and died by the Empress Dowager Xiao in his early years. After Yelu Zongzhen succeeded to the throne, he rehabilitated him. Since Xiao Pidi had no heir, he reused him. His younger brother Xiao Wanli.

This man is only forty years old this year, but he was a Bohai native who followed Xiao Xiaomu who stayed in Tokyo to fight against the rebellion. He was not only brave and good at fighting, but also brave and resourceful, and was highly regarded by Xiao Xiaomu.

He observed that although the Song army was strong in field battles during the day, its night operations were unsatisfactory, so he formulated a strategy of multiple night attacks, which caused a lot of trouble to Di Qing.

If Di Qing had not been equally brave and good at fighting, even though he was able to resist the Liao army that was ten times more powerful with a small number of troops, he still did not lose at all. I am afraid that the Song army that was attacking this time would have been forced back from Yuguan by the Liao army and returned to the ship.

"Your Majesty."

Shulvchuiliji was wearing a raincoat and riding a horse in the rain.

Horse hooves trampled the mud and water splashed everywhere.

When he reached Xiao Wanli, he turned over and dismounted and said, "Your Majesty, the Song Dynasty's ship has sailed."

"A ship at the dock?"

Xiao Wanli asked.

"Yes."

Shulvchuiliji said: "The scouts saw them sailing out to sea, but they disappeared."

"It's going to get dark soon. Isn't going out to sea at this time looking for death?"

Xiao Wanli was puzzled and looked to the east.

In the distance, the East China Sea was also covered with dark clouds, with lightning and thunder.

Even those who are not fishermen know the consequences of going to sea in heavy rain.

So it's hard to understand what Song Jun wants to do.

"Could they go around to our rear and sneak attack our troops?"

Shulvchuiliji said.

"No, they must go west first and attack King Qi."

Xiao Wanli immediately realized something was wrong.

The Song Army has now moved all its ships to Yuguan Port, because it is close to Yushui, making it convenient for the fleet to block the river.

Guangning, on the other hand, basically relies on city defense.

But similarly, the Liao army in Guangning was not large, with less than 20,000 troops.

After all, Yelu Zong really had to deal with the main force of the Song army, and it was impossible to send too many troops and horses from Xijin to support him.

So the current situation is that the pressure on Guangning is far less than that on Yuguan.

It is very likely that the Song army wanted to defeat them one by one and first concentrate their forces to attack Xiao Xiaomu's side, which had a relatively small number of soldiers and horses, and then deal with his side.

Just like the Song army suddenly attacked the Liao army stationed at Jiaoshan the day before yesterday.

"so what should I do now?"

When Shulu Chuiliji heard Xiao Wanli's words, he also realized that something was wrong, and hurriedly said: "Now after the heavy rain, the elm water has surged. Although the Song army's ships are unstable, they have anchors and ropes to fix them, and there are cannons on the ships. , we can’t get close at all.”

"The Song people are really powerful. They use ships and cities to connect each other and support each other. If you want to attack one side, you will inevitably be attacked by the other side. Moreover, their cannons are very light."

Xiao Wanli frowned. The Liao army's artillery was more than two thousand kilograms. Although the Song army's main battle artillery was also more than two thousand kilograms, it had more than two hundred kilograms of small steel cannons, which were much more maneuverable than the Liao army.

In this case, it would be difficult for them to bring the artillery to the shore or outside the city. After all, the Song Army's artillery was not for nothing.

Nowadays, the Song Army's firearms are indeed affected by the heavy rain, but their artillery is also useless, so he originally wanted to use primitive methods to surprise the Song Army's city in the rain and at night, and directly attack the city by force.

Unexpectedly, the Song Army's fleet at the dock left and made their tactics, so the Liao Army obviously had to consider countermeasures.

"You mean, the Yushui River has risen sharply now?"

Xiao Wanli suddenly grasped the key point.

There are Song army ships on the Yushui River, and they can't go to support Xiao Xiaomu, but if they can destroy the Song army ships on the Yushui River, then the Song army's defense line will be directly torn open.

The Liao army can build a floating bridge on the Yushui River, and the Liao army on the east and west sides can naturally communicate with each other, no longer separated and unable to concentrate their forces as before.

"Yes."

Shulu Chuoliji said.

"How high has it risen?"

"It probably makes the Song army's ships two feet higher."

"Only this little?"

Xiao Wanli frowned.

In theory, the higher the water level, the more disadvantageous it is for them.

This means that the higher the water level of the Song army's ships, it is no longer as difficult to hit the shore as before.

But the same low water level means that the water flow is not very turbulent, and it will not pose any threat to the Song army's ships. At most, it will make the ships sway.

Shulü Chuoliji smiled bitterly and said, "The water level of the Yushui River had already dropped a lot before. The heavy rain has just started, so it may not rise so quickly."

"Then let the water flow of the Yushui River be more turbulent and the water level be higher!"

Xiao Wanli said with a grim smile.

"Your Majesty, do you mean to store water to flood the river?"

Shulü Chuoliji immediately understood what Xiao Wanli meant.

"You go and do it!"

Xiao Wanli said.

"Yes."

Shulü Chuoliji immediately reined in his horse and jumped away.

The Yushui River originates from Jiaoshan Mountain. There is a heavy rain in the upper reaches, so the water level must have risen sharply.

He only needs to build a small dam in the mountain to block the source, and then there will be enough water coming down soon to wash away those ships.

The sky is getting darker and darker. It is the beginning of the Youshi, which is about five o'clock in the afternoon, but it feels like seven o'clock.

It seems that there is only a hint of dimness between heaven and earth.

As the high-pitched sound of the horn spreads, the Liao army from all directions began to attack Yuguan again.

It is true that the combat effectiveness of the Song army has declined, but in fact, the Liao army is just like that.

No one could show unparalleled elite momentum in the rainstorm and darkness, not even the Liao army, which was once strong in the field.

This led to the Liao army's chaotic attack, disordered command, and disordered attack.

Guns were fired and grenades were thrown from the top of the city. Some were rushing, and some were watching. Whenever a ladder was set up, no one dared to climb up.

Because the Song army would definitely throw a few grenades from the parapet, many ladders were simply blown off.

There was a crackling rain above the head, and grenades were thrown from time to time. Everyone was scared, and no one wanted to be the next victim.

Although the Liao army also had grenades, many grenades could not be thrown to the top of the city under the wind and rain.

After all, ordinary people could only throw 20 to 30 meters away, not to mention that they had to throw more than ten feet high, that is, more than three or four meters above the city in the wind and rain.

The two sides fought back and forth all night.

At the beginning of the Yin hour, the Liao army finally withdrew, leaving more than a thousand corpses outside Yumen Pass.

The Song army on the top of the city was not doing well either. The defenders in the city only had more than a thousand people in total. The cost of fighting with tens of thousands of Liao soldiers outside the city was very high.

If the Song army on the Yu River had not tried every possible way to rush to the rescue, such as firing in the rain, or shooting from a distance to harass the Liao army attacking the city, I am afraid that Yumen Pass would have changed hands now.

"Report, Marshal, the Liao army has retreated."

"Report, Marshal, the water in the city has begun to rise, and a lot of our gunpowder has been wet."

"Report, Marshal, 21 cannons have been flooded and misfired."

"Report, our grenade reserves are insufficient."

.

Various bad news came one after another, and Di Qing's face was as gloomy as water.

Although he had been calmly commanding on the top of the city for a night and repelled several attacks by the Liao army, he did not feel tired at all.

Even though his eyes were bloodshot, he was not moved at all, as if these bad news had no effect on him.

Until a while later, the sky gradually brightened. Around six o'clock in the morning, the world changed from pitch black to gray fog.

The heavy rain was still falling overhead, and Liu Du, deputy commander of the Pinghai Army, hurried over and said, "Report, General Di, the water level of the Yushui River has begun to drop."

"Did it drop?"

Di Qing's face finally changed slightly, and he pondered, "How much did it drop?"

"About five or six inches."

"Sure enough, the Liao army will definitely store water in Jiaoshan."

"What should we do?"

Liu Du asked, "Should all the ships be withdrawn from the river now?"

"No."

Di Qing narrowed his eyes, "Once the ships leave, they will definitely know that storing water is useless, and they will immediately release the flood. Once the flood is gone, they can immediately build a pontoon bridge to rescue the west bank."

Di Qing then said, "How are Hu Yanshouyong and Wang Kui?"

"No news yet."

"Go and check."

"Yes."

Liu Du took the order and left.

Xiao Wanli guessed correctly that some of the Song army's ships left the dock and did attack Xiao Xiaomu.

The Song army's main attack direction in the past few days was Xiao Xiaomu. After several days of fighting, Xiao Xiaomu suffered heavy losses and is now in a slightly weak state.

The dock and the boats on the Yu River are the Song army's back-up for retreat, and also the last trump card.

The card of the dock has been played, and there are still boats on the Yu River. Once the Liao army successfully uses the flood to destroy the boats, the Song army will be completely without a way out and a back-up plan.

It must be said that the Liao army also has experts.

But unfortunately, Di Qing also guessed that the enemy would store water, so he also had a plan.

Time passed like this.

At noon, there was finally news from Guangning.

After Hu Yanshou led the fleet to Guangning, he raided Xiao Xiaomu's camp at night and cooperated with Wang Kui to achieve a great victory.

Xiao Xiaomu had to withdraw more than ten miles to the northwest. If it were not for the insufficient pursuit force of the Song army, I am afraid that Xiao Xiaomu would have been wiped out in this battle.

"The chancellor once said that it is better to pursue the enemy with the remaining courage than to seek fame by imitating the tyrant."

Di Qing pondered and said to Liu Du who came to report: "Now that the Liao army in the west has been defeated, it is time to pursue the victory. But if we concentrate our forces to the west, the enemies on the east bank will come over."

Liu Du scratched his head and said: "Yes."

"So we should thank the Liao army for helping us block the river. After we defeat Xiao Xiaomu in the west, we will come back to continue defending the Liao army on the east bank."

Di Qing smiled.

Liu Du was puzzled and said, "The Liao army helped us block the river? Commander Di, I am a little confused."

"What do you think will happen if we leave immediately?"

"They will release the flood."

"But what if we don't leave?"

"Wait until the water is enough before releasing the flood to wash away our boats."

"Then let them store it."

Di Qing said lightly, "Go and convey the military order, let everyone abandon the boats and leave, gather all the troops except those on Yuguan, and immediately go to the west bank to pursue Xiao Xiaomu."

"Ah?"

Liu Du was surprised and said, "But this will only leave a thousand people in Yuguan. If the Liao army attacks."

Di Qing smiled and said, "Not to mention that they dare not attack in the daytime, even if they dare to come, we will abandon the city and leave. At this time, they are already storing water in the mountains upstream. Why think about stopping the Liao army on the east bank? Just attack Linyu Mountain!"

In an instant, Liu Du understood.

Yes.

The Liao army wants to store water to attack the boats.

Then they simply find another way.

Abandon the small boats in some rivers and keep the large boats.

Concentrate troops to deal with Xiao Xiaomu.

If Xiao Wanli on the east bank notices and launches a large-scale attack, the Song army in Yuguan will abandon the city and flee, take an empty ship to the other side, and then directly attack the dam in Linyu Mountain.

The Liao army has a large number of troops and is far less mobile than the Song army. I don't believe that the Liao army can build a floating bridge and cross the river quickly in such a short time.

If there is no crossing of the river, the Song army will attack the dam, and the dam will collapse with just a few artillery shots.

At that time, the flood that was originally used to destroy the Song army's ships will become an obstacle to the Liao army's support to the west.

Di Shuai's move of abandoning a child to attack and kill is really a brilliant move!