Despite the rainy season, spring in western Hubei is not too cold compared to the north. Although the Khitans did not have to attack the city in person, they drove the signing army in the rain and shot the Song people at the head of the city with arrows, which consumed a lot of their energy. Since entering the rainy season, the Liao soldiers must do something before going to bed is to carefully dry the bowstring. If the bowstring gets wet, the bow and arrow will not be usable. After this was done, and the bows and arrows were carefully put into the leather bags, many people fell asleep with their heads covered as if they were relieved. Bows and arrows were placed on the pillows, and horses were tied to a tent with men. Many Khitan people are convinced that as long as they have these two things around them, they have nothing to worry about.

The tent was warmly baked, and the thick firewood, with a faint red light, exuded a warm, reassuring smell. The raindrops crackled outside the tent. "It would have been better if there hadn't been a damn rainy season." Many people fall asleep with such luxuries. It was indeed a sleepy, quiet rainy night.

The camp of the Liao army was slightly higher than the depression, not far from the camp of the Liao army, the river was rising rapidly, and the broken tree trunks, wooden stakes and animal carcasses were unusually floating in the river, and under the river embankment, the water flow was restlessly whirlpooling, as if there was a river dragon rolling its body under the water surface, constantly colliding with the fragile river embankment, hollowing out the foundation little by little. Large chunks of earth and rocks mixed with tree branches rolled into the river, and suddenly, streams of water seeped out of the embankment, which was already a precursor to the imminent collapse of the dam. If it were in previous years, there must have been gongs on the embankment, and the soldiers and strong men who were sleeping under the embankment should immediately turn over, carry their shoulders and push their hands, and do whatever it takes to defend the crumbling embankment. But now, even the scouts on duty of the Liao army are huddled in tents, and everything is silent, only the sound of flowing water is heard.

The horses snorted uneasily, their hooves scraping the ground. Xiao Lulie woke up. His head was still groggy, and the Khitan soldiers around him were still snoring, Xiao Lulie thought that there was something wrong with the mount, he was a person who loved horses like his life, although he was extremely sleepy, he still got up and walked to the front of the war horse, coaxing "oh-oh-" in his throat, and his hand slowly soothed it, however, this method that worked very well in the past did not have the slightest effect today, several war horses were restless, and one next to him began to gnaw on the reins.

"Lu Lie, what the hell are you doing!" One of the bookkeepers rolled over and muttered a Khitan complaint.

"I-" Xiao Lulie didn't have time to explain, he heard the unusual sound of rushing water, and pricked up his ears, "What is this sound?" ”

In the crackling raindrops, the sound of running water seemed to be loud. Xiao Lulie was accustomed to the dry climate, and was hesitating to poke his head out in the rain to see what was going on. At this moment, the noise of people and horses almost suddenly arose, and when he couldn't suppress the curiosity in his heart, he was about to open the tent and go out to see what was going on. With a "bang", the entire tent collapsed, covering several Khitans who were still sleeping soundly and even their war horses.

"Not good!" Xiao Lulie rushed out of the camp at this critical moment, and the scene in front of him made him stunned for a moment.

The entire camp of the Liao army has become a country, the sudden flood flooded their calves, and the collapsed camp tent was wrapped around a thick tree trunk, whirling in the flowing water, the people in the tent who had not had time to escape desperately shouted for help, and the mournful roar of the war horses resounded in the night sky. The tents collapsed, the camps collapsed, and all kinds of noisy sounds, shouts and cries of terror, drifting cries, mixed with the sound of rain, formed a very tragic atmosphere.

Many Khitans have never seen a flood in their lives, or even heard of it, and in the face of the sudden, almost everything-destroying flood, they completely lost their judgment and ability to act, and they were helpless to find the nearest mount, turned over and rode up, wanting to leave this hellish place as soon as possible. However, horses were also unable to gain a foothold in the flood. The surging torrent swept away the Liao army. On the contrary, it was the signing army recruited near Fangzhou, because their ancestors had been accompanied by floods for generations, and when they saw the river embankment collapse, some people shouted loudly, "Out of the dragon!" "It's watery!" A group of signing troops rushed to the nearby high ground, and the Liao army couldn't stop, and in the end, they simply followed these signing troops to the high places to flee for their lives.

The flood caused by the collapse of the river embankment has a very different character from the ordinary flood, and the countless torrents are like dragons that have broken free from the shackles, and at this moment they want to take revenge on people who have doubled their shackles in the past, and the artificially accumulated energy is suddenly released in an instant, producing a huge destructive force that cannot be resisted by manpower.

Zhao Xingde stood on a high place, the flood raging at his feet, and the wooden sticks propped up the thick felt blanket to keep the raindrops out. Taking advantage of the cover of night, all units of the Baoyi Army moved to the established high ground. With the help of clairvoyance and faint firelight, Zhao Xingde saw the situation of the Liao army camp clearly: he saw the flood rushing out from several collapsed breaches, rushing in all directions, breaking through, and converging and expanding from all directions. Many tents were destroyed by the tree trunks held high by the flood, many Liao soldiers were suffocated to death in their tents like quilts, and countless men and horses floated, struggled, and cried desperately in the flood. The ropes used by the Liao army to set up tents became murder weapons at this time, and many people were entangled in ropes on the surface and under the water and drowned. There were whirlpools everywhere, and the cloaked water spirits pounced on the struggling men, tearing them off the water, and it wasn't long before they became floating corpses in the turbid current.

"Are you going to fire?" Gao Su asked. His pupils reflected a bright light.

On the hillside where they were staying, twenty three-inch guns lined up, and the gunners from Guanzhong held fire folds in their hands and looked nervously into the distance. The pre-set target was the only high ground near the Liao army camp where they could escape the flood. A large number of Liao soldiers had already gathered there, and the water was still rising inch by inch at a speed that could be discerned by the naked eye, and the surging flood drove more and more Liao soldiers to the high ground, and the noise of people and horses came from afar.

"Wait," Zhao Xingde said in a low voice, "The enemy is not dense enough. ”

The mountain roads were rough and it was impossible to pass through the gun carriages. The four-inch guns of the artillery battalion could only be placed on ships, and only the three-inch guns that could be carried by pack horses came to Fangzhou. The power of the three-inch cannon is limited, and this limited power can only exert the greatest deterrent effect when the enemy army is most dense. Tonight's battle is one after another, and the artillery bombardment is an important link in achieving the demoralization of the enemy.

At this time, the alarm gong sounded at the head of Fangzhou City, and the torches shook non-stop.

"The water is rising!" "It's out of the Jiao!" Countless people are running for the alarm that has been passed down from generation to generation.

"The embankment is broken!" Zhizhou Gao Zhen woke up from a nightmare, only to find that he was covered in cold sweat and his close-fitting clothes were soaked. "Not good! - Someone is going to die! He didn't care to put on his coat, and reflexively yelled, "Go up the embankment!" He bounced up and ran out of the door in three or two steps. Countless raindrops fell in the air, and the cold rain suddenly made Gao Zhen really sober up, and he found that he was not in the Zhizhou Yamen, but on the city wall of the state city, the rolling torrent was passing under the city wall, the flood carried all kinds of sundries, and there were dead or alive people and animals with the undulations of the waves, the rain kept pouring on the body, and the wind blew the gate of the city tower behind him.

"Tall, sir." The two soldiers stumbled over, with a confused and surprised look on their faces, and pointed to the outside Bingdao, "The water suddenly rose at night, outside, Liao soldiers, Liao soldiers......" They were out of breath and said excitedly that they couldn't tell the truth, however, the unobstructed scene under the city wall had already explained everything.

Gao Zhen looked at all this in amazement, looking at the Liao army camp that had been flooded. "Haha, hahaha, hahaha!" He suddenly danced and laughed wildly, "God have mercy, save the people of my city!" The two guards looked in horror and uneasiness as if they had suddenly gone mad and learned that he had fallen down on his knees at the head of the city, and bowed down to the surging flood, and when he looked up again, his face was already sobbing and communicating, and he could not distinguish which was tears and which was rain.

"The sky has eyes!" A soldier muttered.

"Dragon God! - This is the manifestation of the dragon god! The other suddenly said excitedly, "We will definitely build a temple for your old man and make a golden body!" Following behind Gao Zhen, he kowtowed heavily to the flooding river. The people of Fangzhou have long rumored that there are Jiaolong River gods living in these rivers outside the city. This Jiaolong has done evil things for generations, and I don't know how many lives of the people of Fangzhou have been taken, but this year, the dragon god seems to have changed his temperament, and he has made a great deal of power, and he has washed away all the Khitan thieves outside the city. Blind superstition is contagious. At the head of the city, hundreds of people and soldiers were bowing down, weeping, and shouting praise and thanksgiving.

On the hillside in the distance, there seemed to be a flash of fire, and then a few more flashes, and in the curtain of rain, these fires were so faint that they could barely be seen. However, in an instant, "boom-" "boom-" "boom-" rang out, and the dull sound of cannon fire spread exceptionally far in the rainy night. At the beginning, the people in Fangzhou City thought it was thunder.

"Fire-" "Fire-"

With the command of the artillery commander, one after another five-pound round iron bullets pierced through the rain curtain and fell into the dense crowd with huge inertia. The pale Liao army had not yet recovered from the horror of the flood, and most of them had lost the ability to think, trembling like walking corpses. After the simplest correction, each shell carried a large scream and a large area of flesh, and the gurgling blood and rain mixed together to form countless blood-colored streams, and the corpses and blood continued to flow into the torrential flood around the heights.