"Zhao De led 5,000 soldiers and horses to rescue Fangzhou?" Zhang Shanfu handed over the secret report and sighed, "It's true that newborn calves are not afraid of tigers." 5,000 weak soldiers, go to trouble with 15,000 men and horses. ”

This military report was reported by Zhao Xingde through the Military Intelligence Department. The General's Mansion of the Xia State has never been remote, and Zhao De is far away, and it is the action of the Baoyi Army of the Song State, so after deciding to send troops, he only reported to the marching division according to the routine. Zhang Shanfu knew the combat power of the so-called "volunteers" of the Song State, and the marching division estimated that a thousand "volunteers" might not be the opponent of the two hundred Liao cavalry, and after getting the military report, Zhao Xingde had already sent troops from Ezhou, and it was too late to stop it.

Liu Yi raised his hand to pick up the military newspaper, and after reading it roughly, he put it on the table, and said with an indifferent smile: "The back waves of the Yangtze River push the front waves, maybe Zhao De has a way." He thought for a moment, looked at Zhang Shanfu and said with a smile, "The general has nothing to do but go to the Three Treasures Palace, and this time he personally came to the Prime Minister's Mansion, isn't it for the soldiers and horses of the White Emperor City?" ”

Since Zhao Xingde went to contact Ezhou, Xia has been hoarding grain, grass and ordnance in the White Emperor City in Shuzhong, preparing to aid Hubei in a big way. However, Chen Dong still had a certain degree of wariness against the Xia State, not only insisting on buying the ordnance of the Xia State with money and grain, but also limiting the number of Xia State's reinforcements to be within 5,000. After Liu Yi and Zhang Shanfu discussed, they felt that since Ezhou could hold on now, there was no need to rush to give them a lot of assistance. After the first five firearms battalions arrived in Shuzhong, they also stayed in the White Emperor City.

"Talents are rare," Zhang Shanfu sighed, "Zhao De led the troops like grasping beans, and recruited thousands of bandits in the rivers and lakes in ten days, and forcibly pulled up a Baoyi army, which was only slightly inferior to the Zhenguo army in Ezhou." This person is a rare general. He was anxious to make war achievements, and it would not be good if the Baoyi army lost its vitality because of this, after all, this army was different from the Zhenguo army, it was under Zhao De's hands, and the soldiers and horses were not the former Song Dynasty officers and soldiers......"

Liu Yi nodded: "The general has a heart of love for talent, and Liu thinks he is perfect." He thought for a moment, "Let the five firearms battalions stationed in White Emperor City set off, and go to Guizhou to make peace with Zhao De under the banner of the Baoyi Army." "Guizhou is in the middle of the Three Gorges, although it is the city of the Song Kingdom, but because of the remoteness of the place, the Jiangling Water Division only sent a small number of soldiers and horses to station. The Song army who returned to the state knew that if the Xia army advanced eastward, this small land would not be able to hold it at all, so he was very familiar with the Shu Navy Division in the early years. Seeing this, the Jiangling sailors could only acquiesce and regard the section of the river from Guizhou to Xiazhou as a buffer for the forces of the two sides.

After Zhang Shanfu said goodbye, a smile appeared in Liu Yi's eyes.

"Fang Ling, Fang Ling," he said to himself, taking out a file under his desk and opening it, "Say Cao Cao, Cao Cao will arrive." He flipped through the dossier, which contained a map drawn by Lu Cao, densely marked with routes from Hanzhong Lizhou to Jinzhou and then to Fangling. The dangerous passes where troops can be stationed, the rivers and channels for transporting grain, and the mountain paths are all clear.

............

The rain in April was non-stop, and the humid climate in the south made Yelu Xianzhen very irritable. In the muddy pond where sewage was accumulating, the corpses of the signing soldiers began to grow yellow and white maggots, which was disgusting. Yelu had to assign some of his men to burn the corpses. It is said that the summer was hot and humid, and Yelu Xianzhen was worried about the outbreak of disease in horses. This small Fangzhou city actually blocked the Liao army for more than a month, which made Yelu Xianzhen itch his teeth with hatred. If it weren't for the rugged mountain roads, it would have been difficult for the heavy artillery to bring in the siege city, Fangzhou City would have been opened long ago. Unconsciously, the Liao army has relied heavily on heavy artillery in the siege of the city.

Yelu Xianzhen was secretly ruthless, even if Gao Zhen, the governor of Fangzhou, surrendered, he would never accept it, and the men in Fangzhou City must be killed. What made Yelu Xianzhen even more anxious was that the war on the Xiangyang side was also in full swing, and it was said that His Majesty had personally rushed to the city of Xiangyang, and Yelu Xianzhen did not want to miss the battle to break through Xiangyang. Yelu Xianzhen's eyelids suddenly couldn't stop jumping, he frowned, looking at the plum rain that didn't seem to have broken the line, the green mountains behind the rain curtain were like a wall, and they couldn't gallop like the grassland, Yelu Xianzhen felt that his chest was very, very stuffy, and he missed the vertical and horizontal, cool and pleasant Hebei Plain.

Compared with the rich and flat Hebei and Henan, Fangzhou can be called a poor mountain and bad water, there are not many people, and there is no oil and water. Many poor people have a few tattered clothes in their families, and they are even poorer than the Khitans in the north. This also greatly reduced the enthusiasm of the Liao army to plunder everywhere. The mountain road is not only difficult to walk, but also the bandits of the Southern Dynasty are very cunning, ten days ago, a hundred cavalry Liao army was lured into the deep mountains to fight the grass valley, and suffered a big loss. Yelu Xianzhen strictly forbade his subordinates to enter the mountains, and these days, those Southern Dynasty thieves did not have the courage to come to the plains to challenge the Khitan cavalry. Thinking of this, Yelu Xianzhen snorted slightly in his nose.

The walls of Fangzhou in the rain appear dilapidated and decayed, and the originally majestic and neat city head is quite damaged. Outside the city, ladders and siege vehicles are horizontal. The besieging army was like groups of walking corpses outside the city, numbly advancing in the rain, piling up dirt bags under the city. The Liao army's round tents were scattered around the city like gray mushrooms. Because the Song army in Fangzhou did not have the strength to go out of the city to fight at all, and the Liao army was mostly cavalry, the camp tents were scattered very widely, just to prevent water accumulation on rainy days, and the camp of the Liao army was slightly higher than the river embankment.

In the clairvoyant's field of vision, a large river runs through the plain below the mountain, and several small rivers flow into it. Because of the continuous spring rains, the water has risen not far from the top of the embankment, and this is the result of the Baoyi army building seven or eight dikes upstream to intercept the flash flood. The Song army soldiers who had been guarding the ponds and streams had long since fled. It was getting late, in order to prevent the Liao army from being bombarded by trebuchets and stone shells, the city was pitch black, silent, and looked like a ghost town from a distance. After the Liao army outside the city collected their troops and returned to the camp, they lit clusters of bonfires, and the smoke wafted far away with the aroma of barbecued meat. Regardless of the continuous rain for more than ten days or the slow rise of the river level, it did not arouse the vigilance of the Liao army.

"Tonight, dig the weir." Zhao Xingde said in a low voice.

"Obey." Several replied in low voices. Lu Mingyu, Luo Xianshi, Liu Zhijian, Gao Su and others all had a flash of fire in their eyes, these days, under the guidance of the local Qingfeng and Taiping cottages in Fangzhou, the generals ignored the heavy rain and mud, and urged their subordinates to build dikes and dams the mountain floods, and they all spent a lot of effort, just waiting for this day. Qin Ye and Liu Fan, the two village owners, were also extremely excited on their faces, and they held back their strength tonight to kill the Khitan dogs.

"Lord Qin Zhai, Lord Liu Zhai," Zhao Xingde asked, "Several dammed lakes burst their banks together and drained their water, can they really break the river embankments?" "The key to tonight's operation is to create a few man-made small flood peaks, and the flood water from various mountain streams will flow into the rivers near Fangzhou in a relatively short period of time, putting unbearable pressure on the large and small river embankments, and finally causing the river embankments to collapse and overflow.

Liu Fan nodded again and again: "Definitely, it must be overwhelmed!" ”

Zhao Xingde nodded and looked at Qin Ye, who also said: "Mr. Zhao, rest assured, we are all natives of Fangzhou, and we are all familiar with this hurtful embankment." At the beginning of spring every year, the government has to go up the embankment to strengthen the river embankment. Many brothers fled into the mountains because they delayed spring plowing and couldn't survive. This year, because the Liao dog came in, no one took care of the river embankment, just like a paper paste, where can it withstand the rising water! He laughed twice and said proudly, "Liaogou pulled the military master, delayed the repair of the embankment, and suffered by himself, this is called, what is the life of the sky, and the life of himself is not alive." ”

"You can live if you do evil in heaven, but you can't live if you do it yourself!" Zhao Xingde said in a low voice.

"Ahh Qin Ye smiled complimentarily, "We are a rough man, or Mr. Zhao is powerful!" Liu Fan also nodded with empathy, and said secretly, these fatal rivers are in front of us, we just can't see it, so we can only fight hard with the Khitan dogs. Otherwise, we are blinded by an invisible piece of paper in front of us, and only a Wenchangjun like Mr. Zhao can see through.

Hearing that the two village lords showed their loyalty to General Zhao, the generals secretly laughed in a low voice.

For Zhao Xingde's ability as a commander, he has long been accustomed to old departments such as Du Fujiao. Even if Zhao Xingde said that he had his own arrangements and led the army to the enemy's formation, I am afraid that they would be convinced. And Lu Mingyu, Luo Xianshi and other newly recruited generals are also gradually feeling this way, as if any kind of difficulty can be calmly solved in Zhao Xingde's hands. This time, a rabble of 5,000 people was sent from Ezhou to the west to rescue Fangzhou, which was originally something that he knew he could not do. But the journey was smooth, and the more than 2,000 firearms battalions that had been replenished in Guizhou with a well-organized team, and the strategy of flooding the Seventh Army with water instead of soldiers, turned out to be a sure chance of victory. Unconsciously, the generals had a deeper respect for Zhao Xingde, the coach.

"Gao Su, Zhijian." Zhao Xingde said again, "After dark, the firearms battalion will occupy the preset position, and the Liao army must not be alarmed." ”

"The last general understands!" Gao Su and Liu Zhijian replied in a low voice. The firearms battalion was to occupy a low, small hillside near the mountain. The artillery was mounted on the hillside, and the range was just enough to cover the largest high ground outside Fangzhou. Zhao Xingde expected that after the rising water, the Liao army was caught off guard in the dark, and the brigade could not quickly find a way out, so if they were smart, they would rush to the nearby heights to avoid the flood, and the high ground would be crowded with the Liao army. At that time, the artillery of the Xia army, which had roughly calculated the range, could bombard the high ground, and the Liao army would either die on the high ground and bombard, or be driven into the flood.

The night gradually deepened. The fires in the Liao camp gradually went out, and only some dim bonfires remained. The sound of drizzling rain makes people feel particularly sleepy. It was a very quiet night, except for the faint roar of what seemed to be the wrath of the river god in the distance......