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

Large ships were approaching slowly on the sea, and the sea breeze was blowing, and the flags were fluttering in the wind.

The Song Dynasty has not yet made a national flag, but military flags have existed since ancient times, so the Song army has its own military flags on its ships.

As one of the seven fleets of the Song Dynasty, the Zhenhai Army has only more than 20 ships and 5,000 people, but there are more than 500 large and small cannons on the ship, and the firepower is very sufficient.

The color of their flag is also the vermilion color representing the fire virtue of the Song Dynasty. On it is a black warship riding the wind and waves, and below is the ocean breaking the waves, symbolizing the suppression of the sea.

At this moment, Zhou Gang, the commander of the Zhenhai Army, stood on the deck of the Fu ship, looking into the distance with a telescope, and the lookout on the ship was also observing the direction of Yuguan with a telescope.

"Boss, it's the main ship of the Dinghai Navy. They are waving flags to us, asking us to send some assault ships into the river to intercept the Liao army!"

The lookout who had been following Zhou Gang since the scattered duty team did not call Zhou Gang the commander or compliment him as a general, but called him "boss" as usual. His voice was very loud, and he had to shout at the top of his voice in the whistling sea breeze.

Zhou Gang could hear the violent wind blowing by his ears, and he heard the lookout's shouting, and he also shouted loudly: "I'm not blind, Liuzi, pass the order over and let Han San execute the order."

"Just execute the order directly? What if..."

"Try to give a password first."

"Yes!"

There is a basket on the mast, and the lookout and another flag bearer in the basket work together to wave to the Dinghai Navy docked at the dock in the distance.

After a while, the correct password was indeed passed back from the Dinghai Navy.

In this case, it is possible to appear unless Yuguan is lost, the Dinghai Navy and the Pinghai Navy are completely annihilated, and the flag waver is captured by the enemy.

Therefore, Zhou Gang gave the order when he saw that the command was correct, and the flag bearer immediately began to signal other nearby ships.

Not long after, more than a dozen assault ships and assault ships beside the main ship accelerated and headed towards the Yushui River.

At this moment, the Yushui River was quite lively. Xiao Wanli's 20,000 front troops were crossing the river. The river bank was quite lively. A large number of Liao soldiers were pushing the small boats that had been prepared long ago into the river and began to row.

The Yushui River was not a big river, but the river was one or two hundred meters wide. In addition, it was the end of the rainy season and it was still in the stage of flooding. The narrowest place was at least twenty or thirty feet.

So it was not easy for these Liao soldiers to cross the river in a short time.

Some ships had already passed, some were still in the middle of the river, and most of the Liao army was still pushing water into the river on the east bank. The whole Yushui River was quite prosperous.

But with the arrival of the Song army's ships, everything changed drastically.

These assault ships and assault ships were definitely small compared to large ships such as Fuchuan and Feihu, but compared with the Liao army's small flat boats, they were simply giants.

They rumbled into the Yushui River, like an aircraft carrier entering the Panama Canal, and even the wide river seemed a little narrow.

"It's the Song people's ship, run!"

"Don't panic, don't panic, row back, row back."

"Go, go, go!"

The entire river soon became chaotic, and many Liao soldiers who had already rowed halfway were frightened and began to turn their heads.

But the Song army's fleet didn't care about this. With a bang, as the ship in the front fired first, the Liao army fleet in the distance became even more chaotic. Many people turned over and fell into the water in panic, and countless people drowned.

"Bang!"

"Ah, row quickly, ah, I'm going to fall down."

"Help, save me, coo coo coo."

A shell fell into the river, splashing water everywhere, scaring the Liao soldiers next to it to row in panic, but accidentally caused the boat to shift and fall.

In an instant, these Liao soldiers who couldn't swim fell into the water and were drowned by the river.

In fact, the Song army's ships were all equipped with cannons on both sides, and there was only one main cannon at the bow, so there were very few shells that could be fired, only a few shots, and the accuracy might not be able to hit the target.

But the deterrent power brought by the cannons was already extraordinary. Many people were frightened by the terrifying artillery fire, and kept rowing in panic. The result was that haste makes waste. If they were not careful and could not maintain balance, the ship would capsize and the ship would be destroyed and people would die.

With the assault ship in front leading the way, the Song army's fleet was arranged in a long snake shape. When passing by the Liao army, the cannons on the east side officially opened fire. In an instant, hundreds of shells flew together, hitting the Liao army on the east bank and fleeing in all directions.

At this moment, the Liao army's ships on the river were dropping people like raindrops, and the Liao army on the shore was even more scattered. In addition to the cannons, the Song army on the ship also lay on the side of the ship and kept shooting, killing countless Liao people.

After just over an hour, there were no Liao troops on the entire Yushui River. In other words, except for the bodies of the Liao troops and the boats they were riding that were washed downstream, there was only the Song army that was still showing off its might, controlling the entire river surface.

"General!"

At this time, Zhou Gang's main ship had also arrived at the dock, and then quickly arrived at Guangning City to meet Di Qing.

Di Qing was standing on the top of the city looking at the situation on the river in the distance. Guangning City was actually quite far away from the river, about four or five kilometers away, and it was difficult to see what was happening on the river from this position.

However, it was still possible to vaguely see people floating in the distance. Many Liao troops who had crossed the river and ran to the west bank were fleeing everywhere, like birds and beasts.

The Song army on the west bank did not pursue the victory, but remained where they were, just watching from afar.

"Yeah."

Di Qing said expressionlessly: "You are three days behind schedule!"

Zhou Gang's hair stood on end and cold sweat almost fell. He quickly bowed and explained: "General, it's not that I am negligent, but there was a storm at sea, and the ship was almost destroyed and people died. We had to wait for the storm to pass before we could continue sailing."

"Make up for it!"

Di Qing said in a deep voice: "Take your people and disperse those Liao troops immediately."

"Yes."

Zhou Gang hurriedly took the remaining people away.

Hu Yan Shouyong came over and asked curiously: "General, we have won a great victory, why don't we attack with all our forces?"

Di Qing shook his head and said: "Our army has experienced several days of fighting. Although the morale and military spirit are still good, the physical strength is exhausted, not to mention the ammunition is exhausted. In order to avoid casualties, let Zhou Gang and his men go."

The Song army has been fighting hard for several days and has run out of ammunition. What they need now is to replenish their status immediately, have a good rest, and let the logistics department replenish the ammunition.

If they attack now, the soldiers of Dinghai and Pinghai will be forced to fight hand-to-hand with the Liao army, which is not worth the loss.

Although there is a high probability that the results of the battle cannot be expanded, at least thousands or even nearly 10,000 Liao soldiers on the west bank will flee, but at least the soldiers of Dinghai and Pinghai can be saved.

Preserving the manpower to deal with the enemy is a tactic that Di Qing learned from Zhao Jun, so even if he would rather lose some ships, he is unwilling to sacrifice soldiers. He fully learned the essence of "saving people and losing land, both people and land are saved" from Zhao Jun.

Zhou Gang knew that he was three days late, which is a taboo in the military. If he did not make meritorious contributions, he would probably be held accountable by the military court of the Ministry of War afterwards, so he also worked hard to lead people to fight.

The west bank was very lively for a while. More than 2,000 Song soldiers raised their guns and kept shooting. The scattered Liao army fled everywhere. The whole wilderness was full of chasing each other, and small black dots fled in panic, playing a thrilling battle royale game.

By dark, the war was finally over. The Song army reorganized the army and replenished weapons and ammunition from the Zhenhai Navy. After the logistics supply ships of the Zhenhai Navy were emptied, the remaining supply ships, including the Dinghai Navy and the Pinghai Navy, set sail again, leaving Guangning and heading for the Nigukou military camp.

The supply ships are mainly responsible for transporting food, supplies, and gunpowder. The Song army could not send the supply ships back because of the heavy rains in recent days. It was very dangerous for the supply ships to return to the sea, so they could only be parked at the dock.

Moreover, the war between the two sides was uncertain at that time, and the Liao people's offensive was fierce. If they were not careful, they might retreat to the sea. If the supply ships left, the remaining ships would probably not be able to accommodate so many people.

Now with the replenishment of the Zhenhai Navy, and the rain finally stopped, they could naturally set off again and return to Hebei to replenish supplies.

With the help of the Zhenhai Navy, the Song army quickly stabilized the situation. Not only did they repel the Liao people's attack, but they also recaptured Yuguan and deployed artillery on Yuguan, making the Liao people, who were already demoralized, even more unhappy.

So at the end of October, after more than half a month of hard fighting, Di Qing finally gained a foothold in Yuguan. Xiao Wanli dared not attack again, and could only gather the defeated soldiers and retreat to Huizhou.

During this period, the soldiers of Dinghai Navy and Pinghai Navy were also very hard-working.

Because the storm delayed the arrival of Zhenhai Navy for a few days, the original plan was flawed and the Song army was almost defeated.

If it were not for Di Qing's command, relying on the three lines of defense of Yuguan, Yushui and Guangning, attacking Xiao Wanli in the east and breaking Xiao Xiaomu in the west, and struggling for many days, I am afraid that the Song army would have retreated in this situation of running out of ammunition and food.

Therefore, it can be said that this battle was not only the tenacious fight of the Song Navy, but also the high-level military command tactics of Di Qing. It is by no means a matter of luck that success can be achieved.

While Di Qing was killing people in Yuguan, Fan Zhongyan had already started the next move.

Youyan, Xijin Prefecture.

The rainy season of more than ten days came and went quickly.

This period was when the Liao army attacked the most, and the two sides were constantly entangled.

But when the rainy season was over, the Song people's firearms showed their power again, and it became the Song army's turn again.

The Liao army retreated like a tide, returned to the city, and set up cannons to wait.

Fan Zhongyan took advantage of the victory to pursue, and more than 100,000 Song troops marched forward again, step by step, setting up camps around Liangxiang, and completely surrounded Liangxiang city.

They set up camp three or four kilometers away from Liangxiang County, steadily outside the artillery fire of Liangxiang City.

In the Battle of Songjin, the Ming army had artillery, and the Qing army also had it, but the war lasted for two years. The Qing army relied on the tactics of besieging and attacking reinforcements, and finally killed the last elite troops of the Ming Dynasty outside the pass.

Since this battle, except for Wu Sangui's remaining 30,000 remnants who fled back to Shanhaiguan with him, the Ming Dynasty lost all the elite troops in the nine borders outside the pass, and completely lost the ability to counterattack the Qing army.

Therefore, in ancient wars, it is not that you can be invincible with artillery. The artillery used for defending the city has a natural range advantage over the artillery used for attacking the city. It is not so easy to break through the city.

If Han Qi had fought this battle, the result would be hard to say.

But Fan Zhongyan's tactics are quite similar to Zeng Zhitou's. He is a typical person who builds a strong camp and fights a stupid battle.

He can not fight a battle of attack and defense of the city with you, but surround the city and keep fighting with you.

It depends on whether you have more food and grass in Liao or my Song Dynasty has more abundant national strength.

More than 100,000 Song troops from Hebei came overwhelmingly. If you stand on the Liangxiang city, you will see dense Song army camps everywhere outside the city.

In addition to the camp, the Song army dug trenches in the wilderness outside during the day, three layers inside and three layers outside, and built civil engineering to surround Liangxiang city, as if they were going to build dozens of rings for Liangxiang.

When the defenders of Liangxiang saw the situation outside the city, they were almost desperate.

Although Yelu Zongzhen stored a large amount of food and grass in Xijin Prefecture, more than 100,000 Liao troops rushed to Xijin Prefecture in a short period of time, so that the food and grass were slightly insufficient.

After all, the war was actually fought on the logistical supply capacity. Subsequent food and grass needed to be supplied from Zhongjing Dading Prefecture and Dongjing Liaoyang Prefecture. Dading Prefecture mainly produced livestock on the grassland, while Liaoyang Prefecture and Xijin Prefecture produced wheat because of the large plains.

Live cattle and sheep livestock need to be grazed, and meat cannot be stored for a long time after death. Therefore, the Liao army's main food still depends on wheat and some millet that can be stored for a long time.

The Song Dynasty had more than 100,000 troops on the Hebei roadside, and tens of thousands of imperial guards were mobilized from the central government. Together with the navy, the total force was close to 200,000.

The Liao Kingdom was even stronger.

The Liao Kingdom itself had more than 100,000 troops in Xijin. Yelu Zongzhen also transferred the Pishi Army and the Suwei Army from Zhongjing. In addition, the troops of Bohai, Jurchen, Shiwei and other tribes, the total force exceeded 300,000.

Hundreds of thousands of troops gathered in Xijin Prefecture, and the amount of food consumed every day was calculated in huge quantities. After the productivity of the Song Dynasty was improved, there was no pressure, but the Liao Kingdom was different.

Fighting a protracted war has never been the strong point of nomadic peoples.

For this reason, Yelu Zongzhen could only oppress the ethnic minorities in the hinterland of the Liao Kingdom and ask them to pay tribute to food and grass, while urging Xiao Xiaomu to deal with Di Qing as soon as possible, open up Yuguan, and let the subsequent food and grass keep up.

Unfortunately, as the rainy season passed, the Liao army's last advantage disappeared, and Liangxiang was quickly surrounded by the Song army, giving the Liao army a strong sense of oppression.

Even more desperate, the Song army had begun to prepare artillery attacks at night.

Although Liangxiang also had artillery, the number was not comparable to that of the Song army. They set up artillery positions at night and began to calibrate at dawn, directly bombarding the city, making it almost impossible for the Liao army to show up, and they could only hide under the city wall.

Under such circumstances, the Liao army in Liangxiang City was completely in a state of panic and fear.