The pirates left Jizhou City.

Yerod, who had not died and had really been freed, put on the shabby robe that the servants had painstakingly found and had put on him, inspected the empty mansion, and went out to see the same tragic scene of robbery in the city, and in the midst of extreme shame and anger, his thoughts became much sharper and more intelligent than before, and he was helpless and angry, and his expression was agitated, and he did not know whether to regret that his subordinates and children were not by his side and lacked the help to resist the pirates, or whether to rejoice that these powerful generals and children had escaped this catastrophe.

At this time, not to mention that he completely lost the ability to attack Cangbei, even if he did, and there was no threat of pirate sabotage around, he didn't have the heart to provoke Zhao Gonglian.

Since the Liao army marched north, he was even more afraid that the Cangbei army's surprise attack would harm the Yanshan Fu area.

If something happens at this time, although his head is big and his neck is hard enough, he can't afford to be responsible for guarding the border.

In fact, the 80,000 Liao troops were stationed at the border passes, and it was impossible to take the initiative to challenge with the remaining strength of the Cangbei Army.

There are too few soldiers.

The total number of troops in the four military states of the entire Cangbei Army is less than 20,000 horses, and there are only a few thousand people in each state.

In the face of an opponent with absolute numerical superiority, it is necessary to divide troops to defend the prefecture and border passes, prevent the Liao army from lacking morality and doing things that are harmful to others and themselves, take the opportunity to cross the border and specially burn Cangbei, and even in addition to the lack of people in Cangzhou to take care of the vast cropland that can be matured and returned to the warehouse quickly, and attack Liaojizhou, it is difficult to take care of both ends, and it is difficult to do both.

Even if it is offensive and defensive, it is not so easy to gather the troops of the four armies and states to form a first-line army to choose a point to break through.

The overall strategy of the Northern Song Dynasty has always been in a passive and unfavorable situation of being beaten.

Vietnam in the south will make trouble from time to time when it is dissatisfied, knowing that the officials of the Song State always like to make trade-offs and compromises, and they can always bargain for some bargains when looking for trouble in the Song State. The small Western Xia Kingdom was always flexible and took the initiative to attack and loot the Song Dynasty, and the population and materials were scarce and everything was robbed, but in fact, it was also an offensive instead of a defense, and it was very successful.

The so-called six divisions of the Song Western Army, which are brave and good at fighting and have made outstanding achievements, cannot deny their hard work and loyalty in guarding the border for decades from generation to generation. As the Western Xia Xiaoqiang grabbed the west and gradually developed rapidly and became more and more aggressive, the pressure on the western side of the Song State grew rapidly, but the Song State also became richer and more prosperous in commerce and population, and had more sufficient financial resources to raise troops. The strength of the six divisions of the Western Army is also increasing, and the first department has changed from a small border prince to a de facto warlord in the west, and there have been many cases of taking the initiative to attack in the past.

For example, in the fourth year of Yuanfeng (1081) of Song Shenzong, the terrifying five-way expedition was a summer.

This operation was divided into three operational directions, five operational lines, and a million-level manpower was mobilized to attack Xing and Lingzhou, pushing the battle lines of both sides forward in an all-round way, with the intention of seizing the foothold of Western Xia south of the Yellow River.

At that time, among the six divisions of the Western Army, in addition to the Hedong Road Zhijia Army, which mainly prevented Yunzhongfu of the Liao State, did not participate in the war, the rest of the Linfu Road, Yanyan Road, Jingyuan Road, Huanqing Road, and Xihe Road, all five of them went out to fight, and the Fanhan and Song Dynasty troops and Tubo soldiers under their rule, plus the Qingtang Tubo of the Western Xia, the mortal enemy, mobilized 130,000 people to participate in this operation, and the number of troops fighting on the battlefield alone reached more than 700,000 unprecedentedly.

If there are 10,000 people, there is no boundary.

An army of millions, if you think about how much territory so many men have to occupy just by standing densely, not to mention that they are spread out in a mighty way.

Such an army, just listening to the number is not enough to seep the dead alive?

And at that time, not to mention the available strong soldiers in Western Xia, including the nursing baby, even if anyone with a long head was counted, the total population was only afraid that it was not much more than one million. The main force that can fight twice is only a little more than 100,000, which is equivalent to the number of troops sent out by Qingtang and Tubo all the way.

There was such a huge disparity in military strength between the two sides in Song and Xia.

But the result?

The weak Western Xia won.

The Great Song Dynasty was defeated, defeated, and the number of soldiers and horses lost was 100,000.

Although the officers and men of the Western Army were generally brave in battle, they also had victories, defeated several Xia armies, and achieved some results, with the largest results in the battle of Yanyan Road, breaking the main force of the Western Xia Army of 80,000 people, and recovering Shizhou and Yinzhou. But this was useless, and he had to retreat in embarrassment, and the gains were lost, and the troops suffered heavy losses.

In short, the Song State did not gain more than it lost, and the pre-war plan was not to annihilate the Western Xia State in one fell swoop, but only to seize the strategic position south of the Yellow River, a small target, and to cut off the bridgehead of the Western Xia to accumulate troops and attack the Song State. Xingshi moved the crowd, but even this expectation was not met.

This fiasco, which can be called a big joke in the entire history of Chinese warfare, was caused by natural disasters such as deserts and snowstorms that were difficult for manpower to overcome, but it was even more man-made.

It is no exaggeration to say that such a large number of troops participated in a major war that was directly related to or even determined the national fortunes of the two countries, but they suffered a great defeat because of logistical problems.

The supply of such a large army to the front, even in modern times, is a big problem, and this is understandable and forgivable for objective reasons.

However, the senior officials of the DPRK and China, who have made decisions to advocate this war, should bear the heavy responsibility for this time, and should even be held accountable for serious crimes.

It is that they did not organize and prepare the logistics in advance.

The rich and noble tycoons of the court and the central government and the central government were scholarly and bureaucratic, and even old and mediocre, floating on top of it according to the traditional habit of Confucian scholars to "show off their talents and know the affairs of the world without going out", thinking about things as simple and beautiful, without thinking much about practical difficulties, patting their heads and starting a big war as a matter of course.

The important ministers imagined that they planned and led this war, harvested weakened and taught the Western Xia Xiaoba a hard lesson, the west of the Great Song Dynasty was safe, the people were grateful, admired and praised, and they were all famous among the army and the people, and those unruly border generals in the past had to be honest and ambushed from now on, and the emperor was also grateful for the immediate interests and good name of respecting and reusing himself, etc., and also had the long-term interests of leaving the Qing Dynasty history with the emperor, but the result was only to starve to death in vain and freeze to death hundreds of thousands of loyal and brave Western Army soldiers, and also tossed the Song Army's military strength and national strength suffered a huge loss, and the morale of the people and the army was severely damaged. The Qingtang Tubo, who was originally obedient and actively cooperated with the dispatch of the Song State, also lost confidence in the Song State and the previous awe, and was disdainful in his heart and no longer docile......

In the face of the fiasco, these important ministers may have repented of themselves and repentance in their hearts while finding excuses to shirk their responsibilities, but in fact, they will never really change their style.

The performance of a later Confucian scholar in the first dynasty clearly proves this point.

In their hearts, Confucianism is more important than anything else, and their face and authority are above all else. Others, including national interests, and the rise and fall of the nation, are all things that come down to the next level. To put it bluntly, anyway, they don't need to go to war and take risks, and it is not them who die, no matter how many people die, no matter how much they lose, they will not lose their lives and interests.

And what about the fiasco?

"Deeply" review, a little restrained and low-key for a few days, and then, the high-ranking officials did the same, the wealth and wealth were still there, and the pleasures of wine, beauty and food were still the same.

Because the country and the nation rule everything including the spirit with Confucianism, and they are the elite of Confucianism, and they are naturally the indispensable elite ministers of the country.

Even if the country is accidentally played down, it is nothing more than a change of master to be loyal and continue to get used to the traditional everything that he is also keen on.

Western Xia was more confident and rampant after the First World War, and after that, Kou plundered the Song Kingdom more and more vigorously and fiercely.

What about the north side?

In the hundreds of years of confrontation between Song and Liao, the Song State was forced by the huge pressure that the border was not dangerous to defend and the Liao State was greedy and powerful, and not only planted willow forests on the northern border as a cavalry obstruction, preventing the Liao army's light cavalry raid from easily moving south to the hinterland of the Song State, but also built the border fortress as dangerous and strong as it could be.

The Song State attached great importance to defense. The Liao State was also quite jealous of this frightening neighbor in the south, and also attached great importance to the defense of the border passes, and the fortresses of the city passes were also built many and strong.

Especially with the cement invented by Cangzhao, it became countless times easier to build and strengthen the barriers, and the Liao State, like the Song State, further added and consolidated the barriers.

In the face of more dangerous and strong barriers, the Cangbei Army can break through a few, but at the cost, the time consumed cannot be less, and it is difficult to quickly break through and go deep to achieve the goal.

And Zhao Gonglian was busy accepting monk prisoners, and he didn't even think about entering the Liao State.

As for avoiding the southern invasion of the Liao army and taking advantage of the robbery of the Liao State, which made a big windfall, it is enough to have pirates and Zhao Yue to do it.

The cold weapons of the Cangbei Army are difficult to gnaw and even the hard bones of the moat, which is easy for the pirate army.

What the Liao ruling elite did not expect, the humble and ignorant Liao army barbarians who guarded the border pass naturally never expected that the pirates would still have the spare strength to deal with them.

Surprised, they knew that pirates were powerful, but they weren't too afraid.

Standing on the high barrier that is easy to defend and difficult to attack, looking down on the pirates who are quickly pressing up, they even easily laugh at the pirates who are not capable of attacking this, is it crazy?

The old concept cannot keep up with the situation and cannot adapt to the new competition. The old army is even less adapted to the new era of warfare.

The pirates used the time to seize the time as the highest purpose of this campaign, and it was not a matter of effort to force it, and they did it directly.

The mortar, which is easy to carry by individual soldiers and is most suitable for infantry in complex terrain in the mountains, has appeared.

This kind of mortar used by the pirates is Zhao Yue himself in the early years to personally get the model and detailed production process, directly is the latest and most advanced version of the world he came to, the second time to lose the genius of science and technology crazy people, the maximum range is two kilometers, after the relevant scientific research team repeatedly learned and imitated and gradually ate the technology and after gaining a foothold overseas, the power factory assembly line slowly began to be manufactured in large quantities with the increase in production capacity and assembled to the army, this time it was the main weapon of the Northern Army to sweep away the obstacles, and made contributions in the capture of Jizhou City, Almost at the same time, in Jizhou Liaoguan this show fierceness, according to the needs of the scene, one door, or several, four or five hundred meters away from the barrier, to avoid the attack range of the stone throwing machine, stone projectile earth cannon or bed crossbow, the small leader of the pirates Ling Qi waved a loud shout and opened fire, only one or a few shells bombarded over, and the matter was solved.

The gate of the mountain, which was difficult to get close to attack, was torn apart by the roar, and in the blink of an eye, it became a tattered.

Mortars are not heavy artillery, and the power of the shells is small, and they cannot easily blow up the strong wall of the fortress with large stones and cement, but the defenders are full of flesh and blood.

It was the first time that the Liaobian Army had received the baptism of artillery science and technology in the 21 st century, and it was suddenly blown up and collapsed by this kind of thunderous means that could be used from afar.

At the end of the Northern Song Dynasty, there were already artillery weapons, and many of them were assembled into the army, such as the Song army, the Liao army, and the Western Xia army, but they were the kind of stone bullets that were rounded with gunpowder. In the Water Margin, Lei Lingzhen is also good at this kind of artillery, but he is more proficient, and the artillery he makes can attack farther or more powerfully, not a cannon in the real sense.

The Liao army that was bombed here also had a lot of experience in defending against the artillery and trebuchets of this era, but this was not the best use.

Hiding behind the female wall or in the battlements, the stone bullets of this era cannot be hit, and they can resist a resistance, but the modern high-explosive shells are not the kind of lethality of stones, but shrapnel flies, even if there is a fortress above the head of the Liao army, it is okay, but it can't stand the shrapnel flying from all directions below.

In addition, the cannonballs and stone bullets do not have a powerful shock wave that can also kill. Even if you don't die of the shock, you have to be overturned by the shock, injured and fainted, and you can't move for a while, and you still lose your combat effectiveness.

Everyone knows that if there is no bomb shelter, the most correct way to prevent shelling is to get down on the spot.

With the help of battlements or something, it is naturally better to lie there, and then it is a big gamble.

If the life is small, lying on the stomach but unlucky is just the bullet point......

Well, the consequences don't need to be said.

That can only be blamed on his own bad life, because his father and mother gave birth to him at the wrong time, or because of the wrong posture when he was born.

But for these indigenous barbarians of the Liaobian Army, like the defenders of Jizhou City, how could they know this kind of military common sense that people in the next eight hundred years know.

The shelling came. I don't know how to lie down. In the bunker, he was still killed and mutilated. I don't know how to take precautions, I just scream in horror and run around.

There is no defense, people don't dare to exist in the city at all, how can this be fought?

In the midst of screams, screams, and helpless groans, all soldiers and generals ran away, hid in a hurry, and saw the gate that had been opened into a smooth road in embarrassment, and they collapsed even more, and the pirates immediately shouted with a loudspeaker: "Surrender the gun and don't kill." We only seek wealth. Those who resist are all dead", and the simple reminders and threats and warnings all surrendered.

There are loyal generals or small soldiers who are frightened and confused, but they are fierce and want to try to resist according to the danger and refuse to be easily restrained, the pirates grab time, are impatient, and then a bombardment comes, and they are lucky not to die and blow up honestly. The pirates immediately rushed in, and those who dared to play tricks immediately waited for them with bows and crossbows or grenades, and the Liao army was really upright now.

The pirates still kept their word, surrendered honestly and did not kill, and quickly robbed the defenders of their sights.

The Liao army, who were glad to have escaped the robbery, looked at themselves who had been stripped of their iron armor and their equally embarrassed companions and the former majestic and arrogant generals, and looked at the pass, where there were no weapons left except for the cumbersome trebuchet wooden shield, and then at the pirates who rode their horses, escorted the captives who could raise horses and healed the sick, and drove their carts full of their things like the ebb tide of the ocean, and stood there in a daze with only thin underwear, messy in the rising autumn wind.