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

The next morning, the bean-sized raindrops were still falling.

It was already dawn, about 3:30 in the morning, but the sky was still gray as if it was the beginning of chaos.

The Song army's boats were rippling in the rolling water, slowly rising and slowly falling.

When it rains, the river level will rise, and after a period of time after the rain stops, the water level will drop. This is a very normal natural phenomenon.

But it is obviously unreasonable that the water level begins to slowly drop while it rains.

Under normal circumstances, unless someone has long been concerned about this, or is very sensitive to the ups and downs of the water level, few people will notice it.

However, Di Qing had long guessed the means that the Liao army might use, so he quickly took countermeasures.

In the heavy rain, Yuguan was already in tatters. The west gate nailed up by the Song army with wooden boards slowly opened, and Di Qing, wearing a straw raincoat, rode out slowly on horseback.

Although there were no horses on their boats, the Liao army had many horses. He had killed or wounded at least 7,000 or 8,000 Liao soldiers these days, and seized countless spoils.

After coming out of the west gate, Di Qing turned his head and took a deep look at the city.

The city had long been devastated, with traces everywhere.

There were many corpses outside the city, and the Song army didn't even have time to clean them up. If it weren't for winter, I'm afraid there would be rotten stench everywhere.

But no matter what.

He will come back later.

Then he came to the bank of Yushui, boarded the boat, and crossed the river to the west bank.

At this time, the Song army had about 8,000 troops on the west bank, and only about 1,000 people defended the east bank.

If the Liao army attacked, Yuguan would be very dangerous.

But fortunately, the Liao army attacked all night last night and was very tired. And it was raining heavily, and the vision was extremely poor, so they couldn't see the situation of the Song army at all.

If the Liao army didn't find this trick used by Di Qing, it would be an empty ship plan. If they found it, it would be an abandoned attack.

No matter what the outcome, they are in a leading position tactically.

At this moment, the Song army on the west bank gathered in the rain. The captured Liao army horses were not enough to equip the entire army, not to mention that they were naval forces, and many people could not ride horses at all.

The soldiers walked in the mud with one foot deep and one foot shallow. Di Qing slowly arrived in front of the team. Hu Yan Shouyong and Wang Kui had already come.

"General, we have scouted the place where the Liao army commander is stationed, in Lulong County, about 30 miles northwest of Guangning."

"Did they hide in the city?"

Di Qing asked.

"No, they camped in the wild."

Wang Kui said.

"Heh."

Di Qing sneered and said, "The Liao army is really arrogant."

Hu Yan Shouyong said, "Maybe they think we dare not leave Yuguan, so as to facilitate the next attack."

"No matter what, the Liao army is seeking death!"

Di Qing looked northwest and said in a deep voice: "Pass my military order, march 30 miles quickly, and attack the Liao army camp!"

"Yes!"

Wang Kui and Hu Yan Shouyong were both shocked.

This task is not easy.

Although the Song army has long left the era when soldiers had to wear armor and it was difficult to march long distances.

But they are naval forces after all, and they spend more time on water training than on land training.

In terms of physical training, they are obviously much worse than the army.

However, this is Di Qing's death order, and it must be carried out no matter how difficult it is.

The west bank of the Yushui River is barren for hundreds of miles. It is approaching mid-winter and everything is dead.

There are some villages outside Guangning City, but after the war started, many people have fled to other places.

There are some people left in the village. Every household has closed the doors and windows. Some people dared to go out to see, and saw a neat team heading northwest on the official road outside the village in the distance.

Many of them wore red cotton robes, hats, and straw raincoats. They had straight knives hanging around their waists and long spears on their backs, and they looked quite fierce.

"Are these soldiers from the Song Dynasty?"

"Look at them, they don't even have armor on their bodies, how can they beat our Liao army?"

"I heard that they no longer need to use swords and guns, but firearms."

"There have been loud noises in the direction of Yuguan these days, louder than firecrackers, that's how powerful firearms are."

"Tell me, who will win between the Liao Dynasty and the Song Dynasty?"

Several villagers looked at the rows of Song troops in the misty rain in the distance and fell into silence.

For the Han people in Youyan, the emotions towards the Song Dynasty are complicated.

Later, during the Southern Song Dynasty, many Han people fled to the south from the occupied areas of the Central Plains. They regarded the Song Dynasty as their motherland and the Jin Dynasty as barbarians.

But that was because their ancestors were all Song people. From the founding of the Northern Song Dynasty to the Southern Song Dynasty, it has been 167 years, and the Han people's thoughts have long been deeply rooted.

But the people of Youyan are different.

It has been exactly 109 years since the puppet emperor Shi Jingtang ceded the Sixteen Prefectures of Yanyun to the Khitan in 938 AD.

In the later generations, the treasure island has been away from China for only 70 years, and many people do not identify with their motherland, let alone at this time.

Therefore, many people in Youyan have been ruled by the Liao Kingdom for generations, and many people still maintain their Han identity, Han blood and various cultural habits.

But in terms of identity, they have long regarded the Liao Kingdom as their motherland, not the Song Dynasty in the south.

But it is precisely because of this that when they saw the Song Dynasty army, which is also Han, beat the Liao army step by step, they naturally felt indescribable emotions in their hearts.

One side is your own country, the other side is your own nation.

It's hard to say who they would rather win.

certainly.

If it were before, they would definitely hope that the Liao Kingdom would win.

But today’s Song Dynasty is no longer what it used to be.

I heard that the Liao army was having a hard time on the front line, and even the Song army attacked directly into the hinterland of Yuguan.

Then reason will tell them that they should stand on the side of national identity.

The rain was still pouring.

The marching team of the Song Army hurried forward along the muddy road.

The boots on many soldiers' feet were soaked in water, causing their feet to turn white.

But no one said a word, and no one left the team.

Everyone was in this silence, and the only thing left in the sky and earth was the vast torrential rain.

After about two hours, Di Qing slowly walked through a dense forest. In the distance was a stretch of undulating mountains, with hills and mountains on both sides.

There is a small mountain range in the southeast of Lulong County, which is the remnant of Yanshan Mountain. The mountain is not very high, but the trees are relatively lush.

Although it is winter, not all mountain forests are withered, and there are many evergreen plants that exude green all year round.

The scout hurried over and said to Di Qing: "Report, Commander, the Liao army camp has been spotted ahead."

"Where?"

"Just under the mountains in front."

"Are the enemies on guard?"

"Nothing."

"Take me to see it."

"yes."

The scout immediately mounted his horse again.

Di Qing galloped on his horse, escorted by the surrounding guards, and arrived at a hill about a hundred meters away.

It was already noon at this time, the sky was still gray, and the visibility was not very high.

But it can still be observed through the telescope that there are three fortresses erected in a row under the mountains in the distance. They should be newly built and do not even have any defensive facilities.

The Liao army had previously camped arrogantly outside Guangning City, but was defeated by the Song army. Now they have withdrawn to the nearest city, Lulong. They are probably waiting for reinforcements from Yingzhou, or planning to reorganize and attack Guangning again.

Di Qing had been watching near the top of the mountain for a long time. He was sure that the Liao army had no defense. In the pouring rain, there were very few patrols and sentries on the outside, only the poor guards on the camp.

"The commander knows things well. The Liao army is indeed unprepared."

Hu Yanshou came over and saw this scene, and he sincerely admired Di Qing's judgment.

"The power of our weapons is greatly reduced under the heavy rain. It is already very difficult to rely on the city to defend. The Liao army certainly did not expect that we would take the initiative to attack."

Di Qing shook his head and said: "What's more, for them, what they need is to take back Guangning and Yuguan, and re-open the roads between Liaoyang and Xijin, so how can they go to such trouble to build walls and arrange so many fortifications? "

To put it simply, the Liao army is the offensive side, and time is tight. They must capture Yuguan as soon as possible to open up the baggage transportation line. They cannot spend too much time playing with Di Qing here.

Therefore, even if the Liao army was attacked by the Song army and forced to retreat dozens of miles, they still had to prepare for the next attack and could not think about defense.

It was not because Xiao Xiaomu was not cautious, but he had no choice but to do this.

"Commander, there is a mountain ridge over there that you can go around."

Wang Kui noticed that there was a hillside on the west side of the Liao army's camp. If he attacked the Liao army from there, the attack distance would be greatly reduced.

"Let the soldiers rest where they are for half an hour, and then take the opportunity to cut down some trees and build some ladders."

Di Qing said solemnly: "We must win this battle!"

"yes."

Wang Kui and Hu Yanshou agreed and immediately went to arrange orders.

After half an hour, the soldiers were almost rested, and Di Qing immediately ordered to start again.

The Song army bypassed this wilderness with an expanded view and detoured to the west to approach the mountains.

Under the cover of numerous hills and trees, they quickly arrived at the back of the mountains, less than one mile away from the Liao army camp.

Through the field of view through the telescope, we can see that in the gray mist, the Liao soldiers were leaning boredly on the watchtower in the corner, not even looking outside.

"Walk!"

Di Qing gave a gentle greeting. Instead of riding a horse, he bowed down and waved back. Then hundreds of personal guards followed him and slowly approached the Liao camp.

If it were a city, there would be people watching at any time above the city wall, and they might be discovered at some point.

But the perimeter of the Liao camp was an ordinary fence, and there was no way anyone could stand on the wood. Except for the four corner towers where people could be seen, the Liao army didn't notice anything was wrong at all.

Soon they reached outside the fence, and through the gaps in the fence, they could even see many tents in the Liao camp.

"Commander, this fence is quite strong and not easy to cut."

One of the guards used the heavy rain to cover up the sound and tried to chop twice with a knife, but he couldn't break it.

After Di Qing thought for a moment, he said: "Blow it up with a grenade."

"Is there too much movement?"

"We're not afraid of movement. What we want is a gap that they can't plug."

"yes."

The guards responded, and then everyone moved away.

Some of the guards collected more than thirty grenades, pulled them and smoked them, and threw them towards the fence.

Rainy days will definitely increase the chance of a dud. After all, the inside of the grenade is made of gunpowder plus iron sheets and oiled paper. Although the oiled paper is waterproof, the lead is not.

If the small stone inside does not produce sparks to ignite the fuse after being pulled, or if the fuse is wetted by water, it will become a dud.

But there are too many grenades, at least twenty of which can be detonated, and they are thrown directly at the fence after smoking.

Then the sound of "bang bang bang bang" was heard, and wood chips flew all over the place, and a huge gap was blown out of the fence.

"What's the sound?"

At this moment in the middle camp, Xiao Xiaomu was writing official documents on the table.

He planned to ask Yelu Zongzhen to send more reinforcements.

There are many people on the east side of Yuguan because some Liao troops have not yet arrived from Shenyang Prefecture.

As the firearms manufacturing base of the Liao Kingdom, Shenyang Prefecture needs a large number of Liao troops in the rear to escort and escort.

And the west side of Yuguan is Nanjing of the Liao Kingdom. At this time, almost all the troops of Xijin Prefecture are fighting with the main force of Fan Zhongyan's Song Army, and not many troops can be withdrawn.

The Song army cut off the Yushui River, making it impossible for the troops in the east to cross the river to join him, so he only has about 10,000 troops on hand.

This number of troops is definitely not enough to capture Guangning.

However, they still have 60,000 guards in Zhongjing Dading Prefecture, and Yelu Zongzhen has already mobilized these troops after the war.

In this way, the Liao army in the entire Nanjing Road can be close to 300,000.

In addition to the Liao army in the direction of Shenyang Prefecture and the attack on Goryeo, it can be said that the entire Liao Kingdom has been mobilized, with nearly 400,000 to 500,000 troops fighting the Song Dynasty.

I believe that in a few days, when the guards in Dading Prefecture arrive, the troops will be sufficient, and it will be easy to destroy the Song army in Yuguan.

However, at this pass, several muffled sounds suddenly came from outside.

Xiao Xiaomu raised his head in surprise.

A general said: "My king, maybe it's the sound of thunder."

"Yeah."

Although Xiao Xiaomu was still very curious why the thunder seemed a little too dense, he didn't take it seriously considering the weather outside.

But after a while, there were chaotic sounds outside the East Camp, including shouts, screams, and sharp whistles.

"Enemy attack!"

Xiao Xiaomu stood up from his chair in an instant.

The whistle was already foreshadowing something.

At this moment, the camp was in chaos, and a large number of Song soldiers were rushing in from the gap outside.

Di Qing led the guards to fight all the way to the central camp.

Hu Yanshou held a gun in his left hand and a knife in his right hand, blocked an attack by a Liao soldier with the knife, and shot the enemy with a short gun in his left hand.

Then he pointed his knife at the tent not far away and said, "Marshal, that should be the central army tent that the prisoner just mentioned!"

"Kill it!"

Di Qing also fought bloody battles. His troops were too few, so he had to go into battle and kill the enemy himself.

But his high martial arts skills surprised many Song soldiers.

Because wherever he went, no matter how fierce the Liao army was, they were not as good as him, and he was easily killed without any obstacles.

Rainwater mixed with blood, and the surroundings were in chaos. Soldiers of the Liao army kept running out of the tents, and were then ambushed and killed by the Song army outside the tents.

Di Qing and others did not get too entangled with ordinary soldiers. They captured several Liao soldiers when they just entered the camp, and forced them to tell the tent of the commander Xiao Xiaomu, and then ran all the way.

At this moment, in Xiao Xiaomu's tent, a group of people just got up, and a Liao soldier rushed in from outside and shouted: "My king, the Song. Song army is attacking!"

"Reorganize the troops and kill them immediately!"

Xiao Xiaomu gritted his teeth and said: "The Song army's firearms are not easy to use in this heavy rain. I don't believe we will lose if we fight them in close combat."

"Yes."

Several generals in the tent hurried out and prepared to go back to their own camp to gather troops.

But almost at this time, several grenades were thrown over and just thrown outside the tent.

"Bang bang bang bang!"

Several huge explosions were heard, and several generals were killed on the spot.

Then, in the midst of the smoke, Di Qing and hundreds of other vanguard death squads rushed through numerous obstacles and reached the edge of the big tent.

At this time, the big tent had collapsed for the most part. Xiao Xiaomu struggled to crawl out of the tent, but as soon as he came out, he was grabbed by someone and pressed to death on the ground.

He vaguely raised his head and saw a grinning face.