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The Liao army launched a fire attack. At the third watch, dozens of boats rushed down the current, and the defenders on the pontoon bridge were immediately alert and began to shout and fire arrows. All of a sudden, the ships burst into flames dozens of paces away, turning into dozens of large fireballs. The fireboat went down the river and hit the pontoon bridge directly, which had the effect of blocking all the boats that were burning and caught on the side of the bridge. Under the blazing fire, the pontoon bridge made of logs was quickly ignited, and the soldiers of the Great Zhou Dynasty could not rescue them at all, because under the scorching fire, it was difficult to approach a range of more than ten zhang. There was no way to stand on the pontoon bridge at all. Not to mention that there is no means of rescue at all. Originally, there was a river with soup around his feet, but at this moment, he had no way to deal with the fire on this water.

Yang Jun rushed to the ferry and shouted loudly for people to put out the fire, but the soldiers could only hurry. Seeing that the fire burned the logs and burned the planks, the anchored bluestone and iron ingots also broke apart, and the entire pontoon bridge was scattered. A few sections drifted downstream and became rafting rafts. The soldiers above were at a loss and could not leave, so they could only resign themselves to fate.

In the end, Bai Qi came up with a way to hit the fireboat with a big ship, causing it to fall apart or sink into the water. It was tossed until the sky was light that the fireship was extinguished, and the sinking was sunk, and the crisis was lifted.

In the glimmer of the morning light, Yang Jun frowned and gritted his teeth as he looked at the scattered, burned black and shapeless pontoon bridge, and hated it in his heart.

He didn't hate the Liao's fire attack, but hated that he hadn't thought of it. In fact, as long as I think about it a little, I should be aware of the intentions of the Liao people. Are you really old? Running out of energy? actually neglected the other party's method of attacking with fire. Yesterday's half-day effort was all in vain, not to mention the serious loss of materials for building the pontoon bridge, which is a huge problem. I am afraid that the materials at hand will not be able to rebuild a pontoon bridge of this scale, can it be said that his army will really be blocked on the south bank of the Sanggan River? Is it really necessary to send people and horses to the other side by boat?

After counting, most of the pontoon bridge was destroyed, and more than 2,000 soldiers and horses guarding the bridge were killed, wounded and missing, most of whom fell into the water in a panic, or were divided by the fire on the fireboat, and floated to nowhere with the broken pontoon bridge.

All the soldiers were greatly hit, and sighed one by one. But Yang Jun showed his courage and wit as a manager. He had encountered much worse difficulties than this, but he would not be easily defeated. After a quick period of consideration, Yang Jun gave the order to continue rebuilding the pontoon bridge. He ordered the pontoon bridge to be changed from a double row to a single row. Although this made the entire pontoon bridge suddenly change from two zhang wide to a zhang wide, it not only affected the stability and speed of traffic, but also may not be able to withstand the weight of heavy equipment such as the cloud car. But it's better than not being able to cross the river.

In order to ensure that heavy equipment such as the cloud car could also cross the river, Yang Jun ordered these equipment to be disassembled, put into separate cars, and reassembled after crossing the river. It's time-consuming and labor-intensive, but it's a great way to deal with it.

Everything quickly fell on track, and when the pontoon bridge began to extend to the other side again, Yang Jun's heart finally calmed down. Bai Qi also personally boarded the ship and led dozens of large and small ships to patrol the river to prevent the other party from attacking again.

At noon, the rapidly extending pontoon bridge came within two hundred and fifty paces of the opposite bank. The Liao army on the other side began to bombard the soldiers building the bridge with bed crossbows. The effective range of the bed crossbow is up to 300 paces, and it is extremely powerful. When shot at the pontoon log, the iron-headed crossbow will stir up a large piece of wood chips, which will make a large scar on the log. Shoot on people, then it goes without saying. No shield or armor can withstand the crossbow of the bed. The crossbow will be penetrated, the body will be taken out several feet away, and the internal organs will be brought out.

Fortunately, the number of bed crossbows of the Liao people does not seem to be much, and only dozens of bed crossbows are fired from the shore. But this was enough to cause heavy casualties among the sappers in Zhang Xu Fangyuan last night. It's okay to shoot it on the pontoon, although the wood chips are flying and the logs are damaged, but it will not lead to any big consequences after all. But the bed crossbow arrow shot into the crowd, that's another matter. It will directly penetrate the body and take their lives.

In just one stick of incense, the bed crossbow caused more than 700 casualties among the sappers. Yang Jun strictly ordered not to retreat, and continued to build bridges, and the sappers and craftsmen could only risk their lives to do it. Amid screams and flying flesh and sawdust, the pontoon stretched tenaciously forward. Soon after, it entered the longbow's attack range.

There was a strange cry on the other side, as if the general had given an order, and suddenly arrows rained down. The wood at the front of the pontoon became a meadow paved with arrows in an instant, densely packed with feathered arrows nailed to it. Countless arrows fell into the surrounding river, making a terrible sound, and countless ripples rippled on the water, like dense raindrops falling from the sky.

While the arrows killed the people, they also harmed the fish in the river. A large number of bows and arrows were covered, and the swimming fish below the surface of the river were really affected, and they were shot countless by the arrows, and they floated on the surface of the water with the arrows.

The soldiers and horses of the Great Zhou Dynasty also took some precautions, and a small shield array was dispatched to cover the sappers in front of them to block the arrows. But even so, a large number of soldiers were shot and killed, because the terrain was too cramped for them to deploy. Congestion at the front of the pontoon bridge can cause inconvenience.

At this time, a clever craftsman stands out, and often in some urgent moments, some people will seize the opportunity to show their brilliance. The carpenter, Lupin, came up with a genius idea at this point, suggesting to his superiors that he make a sheltered canopy out of planks on both sides and above the pontoon. The pontoon bridge at the front end was turned into a covered bridge, which not only made it easy to complete the pontoon bridge quickly, but also allowed the soldiers and horses to cross the river and avoid being blocked by the opponent's arrows when they approached the opposite bank.

This genius's idea was immediately reported, and Yang Jun was overjoyed and immediately ordered an experiment. On the shore, a simple box structure with dozens of logs as the base quickly took shape. The method of transportation was changed to be pulled by boats, and all the anchor iron ingots and bluestone were tied on land, and when they arrived at the location, they only needed to be hinged together with the pontoon bridge and push the anchor points of the iron ingots and bluestone into the water.

This bridge structure soon proved to be extremely effective, far faster than the laying of logs, and the planks of the roof effectively blocked the baptism of arrows when the opponent's bows and arrows were overwhelming. The sappers only had to work under the shelter of the canopy, and did not have to worry about the arrows that were densely nailed to the wood like popping beans on their heads. Although bed crossbows can penetrate these bridge structures and cause casualties, such casualties are absolutely acceptable. As long as the main structure does not fall, the entire bridge structure can stand tall and absorb a large amount of damage from arrows.

In order to prevent the opponent from attacking with rockets, Yang Jun asked people to spray all the wooden planks of the roof with water, and the wet wood can make the rocket unable to burn in a short time, although it cannot last, but Yang Jun does not want a permanent pontoon bridge, what he needs is a bridge that can allow his soldiers and horses to pass smoothly.

Originally, it was only a hundred steps away from the other side, but after using the genius method of this genius man, the progress instantly accelerated a lot. When more than a dozen covered bridges were put in place, the wharf on the other side was already close at hand. After the heavy, extremely strong gangplank nailed with spikes was put on the dock platform with the joint efforts of everyone, a pontoon bridge that was long and meandered like a dragon on a river was finally built. And the place where dozens of covered bridges on the opposite bank are connected, it is like a dragon's head.

Without further ado, the night is long, and there are many dreams. After the last section of the covered bridge was installed in place, the tens of thousands of cavalry led by Han Gang were ready. All the soldiers and horses made way for them.

Han Gang raised his long knife and let out a heart-rending roar. The first soldier urged the horse to rush onto the long bridge and galloped to the opposite bank. All the cavalry rode to follow, although the bridge was only a few feet wide, and could only accommodate three horsemen at most, and the slightest mistake would fall into the water due to the instability of the pontoon bridge, but the long dragon of cavalry still rushed to the opposite bank.

The bed crossbow whistled, and the crossbow arrows rained down. Sawdust flew across the pontoon, and columns were constantly collapsing from bed crossbow shots, but its protective effect was unquestionable, even if it was broken into a sieve, it could shield a lot of arrows. When the two Great Zhou cavalry horsemen at the other end of the covered bridge stepped on the flat ground of the dock, Yang Jun, who was watching the battle on the south bank, breathed a long sigh of relief, stroked his beard and smiled.

"Promote that craftsman Lu Ping to be the deputy chief officer of the craftsman of the army, and order the rear to build a golden axe for him, and the commander will personally present it to him and give him a reward." Yang Jun said.

By the time the cavalry landed on the docks on the other side, the battle was already lackluster. The blocking soldiers and horses here are not the main force of the Liao army. The main force of the Liao army was in Xijin Province. Their number is also not large, less than 20,000. That's why they only have dozens of bed crossbows to block each other from erecting pontoon bridges to cross the river. With such a deployment of troops, if it weren't for the leading generals who had a flash of inspiration and came up with a strategy of fire attack and night attack, they would have been broken through this morning.

Their goal is to block, not to fight. Although the Liao people were all conceited, they were facing the opponent's main army of 300,000, and they also knew that they were not opponents at all. Instead of dying, it is better to see the opportunity and leave. Therefore, when the Great Zhou cavalry set foot on the flat ground of the wharf, the Liao general issued an order to retreat. When Han Gang led the cavalry up the slope to the undulating ground of the hills, he saw the Liao soldiers and horses fleeing on horseback in the mountains and fields, so he had to spat at the mouth and scold the other party for being as cowardly as a mouse.

By evening, all the soldiers and horses had successfully crossed the Sanggan River, including all the siege equipment and supplies loaded on the trucks. This crossing, which had been expected to be very difficult and likely to involve a large number of casualties, was successfully completed at the cost of more than 3,000 casualties. This is the result of last night's negligence in being attacked by the enemy.