The night was deep, and a waning moon hung on the eaves of the sandbank tower. Compared with Xicheng, where the sound of killing shook the sky and the corpses were piled up, the side of the Hanyang River was much quieter, and the river surface of the big river not far away was shrouded in a thin mist, and a small boat came out of the fog and slowly approached the dock of Hanyang. The three soldiers jumped out of the boat and said a few words to the officer on duty on the dock, and the officer led him straight to the Shazhou Gate.

Zhao Xingde sent Tong Yunjie away in the afternoon, and when he heard that the envoy from the military department had arrived, he expected Chen Dong and Cao Liangshi to send guests. I smiled bitterly. In the moment when the soldiers brought the envoy up, Zhao Xingde pondered how to make Chen Dong and Cao Liangshi give up their interference in the water division.

"My lord, the envoy from Ezhou has arrived."

"Come in."

The messenger was a burly man standing in the doorway, his face full of beard. The other two stood at the bottom, without the slightest respect for the messenger, but looked at Zhao Xingde with both respect and admiration. Zhao Xingde raised his head, his face was slightly stunned, and he opened his mouth but did not make a sound. When the envoy took off the felt hat and Zhao Xingde saw this person clearly, the look of surprise on his face was even stronger.

"There is an important matter to be told by the military plane, please ask General Zhao to retreat."

"You stand guard outside the door." Zhao Xingde hid his surprise and ordered, "Without greeting, no one else is allowed to approach." The two tooth soldiers stepped back as ordered, and stood guard at the door with their hands on the hilt of their swords.

After the door was closed, the two generals behind the envoy bowed together and said, "See the commander, please forgive me for the sin of being late." ”

"General Lu, General Luo doesn't have to be polite." Zhao Xingde arched his hand and said in a low voice, stretching out his hand to let them sit down at will. He turned his head to the envoy, his face no longer hiding the look of surprise, and asked, "Lord Han, the Henghai Navy is from the whole division. When did it arrive? ”

"About two days ago," Han Shizhong sat down with a big grin, fanned the wind with his felt hat, poured himself a bowl of tea into his stomach, he looked at Zhao Xingde and grinned, "In the past two days, those arrogant soldiers under your command have not caused me less trouble, and almost burned my boat." He sighed, if it weren't for that, and the Han army insisted that they would not cooperate with the dispatch of troops without Zhao Xingde's consent, Han Shizhong would not have risked exposing his whereabouts and personally came to Hanyang to visit Zhao Xingde.

Whether it is friend or foe, it is inevitable to be surprised when they see Han Shizhong appear here. After the battle of Shuzhou, in order to deceive the enemy, he falsely claimed that Yue Fei was the governor of the land and water army to aid Hubei, and Han Shizhong claimed to stay in Shuzhou. In fact, it was Wang Gui, the commander of the Zhenguo Central Army, who commanded the Zhenguo Infantry Army and tens of thousands of prefectures and counties to march along the river with great fanfare. Under the banner of Han Shizhong, the one who stayed in Shuzhou was Fu Xuan, the commander of the army after the Zhenguo. defeated Tiemuge's troops, and before he had time to sweep away the remnants of the enemy, Han Shizhong led the sailors to set off first, carrying more than 10,000 elite infantry of the Zhenguo Army to the west to aid Ezhou. Yue Feidu supervised the troops to clean up the battlefield, and then personally led the cavalry of the Zhenguo Army to march on the north bank of the river, looking for fighters to attack the flank of the Liao army.

After the arrival of the sailors of the Henghai Division, they did not make a big splash. The Ezhou Prime Minister's Mansion also tightly blocked the news of the arrival of reinforcements, and even Zhao Xingde didn't know about it. In order to prevent the Liao army from seeing the flaws, a few days ago, the Song army's naval division and the Liao army's naval division were in an artillery battle on the river, Han Shizhong saw it in his eyes, but he couldn't help but say a word. Because there were grain ships and troop carriers arriving in Ezhou every day, the Henghai Navy Headquarters arrived one after another, scattered at several wharves, and the supply of water was arranged by the Ezhou Military Department. In the past two days, there have been signs of large-scale mobilization of the Liao army's naval division, and Han Shizhong estimated that it was likely that Yelu Dashi would not be able to resist launching an attack, and he proposed that Cao Di and Chen Dong agree to take this opportunity to fight a decisive battle with the Liao army on the river.

"These gunboats of the Han army are really powerful, they are imitations of the big ships made by the Xia Kingdom." Han Shizhong's face was regretful, he still didn't ask him if he was the Xia general Zhao De, and changed his words, "The Liao army thought that our reinforcements had not arrived, and when his sailors attacked in Japan, we pretended to retreat, and introduced the Liao army's sailors between the Hanyang and Ezhou rivers, and bombarded them from three sides......

"But," Zhao Xingde looked at Han Shizhong and hesitated, "Are you sure of winning?" ”

"No problem." Han Shizhong waved his hand, lowered his voice, and said with a somewhat mysterious smile, "Although the Liao army has a lot of sailors and gunboats, but I have seen that there are big problems in their formation in the past two days......" He saw that Zhao Xingde was a little suspicious, didn't say any more, patted his chest and said, "Old Zhao, we've known each other for more than ten years, you still can't believe me?" Rest assured. If this battle is fought well, you can ask Yan Zongbi to float back with a boat plank. He laughed twice, not afraid that the tooth soldiers outside would hear it, and said, "Also, you have to give me an order to let your men stay in the camp honestly, and if you don't have an order, don't make trouble." Otherwise, I'm worried that the Liao soldiers haven't come over yet, and they will first have to fight with me in the sea. Han Shizhong said as he looked at Lu Mingyu and Luo Xian, who were sitting next to him.

Lu Mingyu's eyes widened, but Luo Xianshi said with a smile: "The last general and others led their troops to Ezhou, knowing that Zhao Dashuai was struggling to support the crisis in Jiangbei, but these thousands of elites were confined by General Han in the river boat and water village, and they couldn't help but be worried, and made some outrageous moves, asking General Han to forgive him." He called Zhao Xingde a handsome, but he only called Han Shizhong a general, and there was a favoritism in the title, Han Shizhong didn't care about him, and grinned: "You asked people to pile up firewood and grass, snatch fire oil, ammunition, and even vegetable oil in the kitchen, and prepare to set fire to my cabin and water village, and give me a common death, and the jade will be burned, this method is very powerful." ”

Zhao Xingde smiled slightly, when he arrived at the head of Ezhou, the Heng Navy did not let the Baoyi Army get off the ship, and it was strange that Lu Mingyu, Luo Xianshi and others did not make trouble. has dragged on for two days and there has been no major incident, and it can be regarded as Han Shizhong's skill is very good. What Lu Mingyu and Luo Xianshi brought over were the elite of the 6,000 firearms battalion of the Baoyi Army and the Zhenguo Army, as well as Liu Zhijian's artillery battalion gunners. He turned his head to look at the two generals, and there was only joy in his eyes, but there was no reproach.

Luo Xianshi and Lu Mingyu understood, and without waiting for Zhao Xingde to speak, Lu Mingyu arched his hand and said: "Since I see the handsome, I will naturally rest assured, on the day of the decisive battle with Liaogou, I will only see the handsome general's flag, and the last general will go to the soup and fire, and never frown." Luo Xianshi smiled and said, "At that time, we will trouble General Han to cross the Jiangbei." ”

"Well said, well said." In front of Zhao Xingde, Han Shizhong couldn't let out the fire, waved his hand at these two people, he simply did it to the end, and smiled at Zhao Xingde, "It's true that these guys under you are incomprehensible, and it's true that they are not ambiguous when they fight." In Shuzhou, the fire battalions of the Baoyi Army and the Zhenguo Army forced Liaogou to the front of the iron barrel artillery fort. Later, Liaogou was anxious and desperately made the horse team rush our camp, but he was also defeated and returned. ”

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

The next morning, before the sun had risen. In the upper reaches of the Han River, there are large and small rivers in the Wuhu area, and flocks of gulls and herons are so shocked that they flutter their wings and fly high. Wuhu Lake is the gateway of the Han River into the Yangtze River, and it is the place where the Jiangxia Taishou Huang Zu trained the water army during the Three Kingdoms, so it is also called the Huanghan Lake. It was summer, and the flooding formed a very wide lake and river forks, which was suitable for the assembly of the naval army. At this time, the sound of orders, trumpets, the sound of ships breaking the water, and the stirring of clear waves, one after another, broke the silence of dawn. Khitan, Jurchen, and Han dialects are noisy, and in Chinese, there are both northern accents and Wu Nong soft language. "Eternal Heaven bless." The sailors burned incense and kowtowed, and pulled anchors.

"Looks like a lot of people are going to die again." There are signatories whispering.

"Anchor, anchor!" Someone was shouting. The new building boats of the Song Dynasty, the tall and sturdy iron barrel gunboats, the warships rebuilt by forcibly requisitioned merchant ships, the Jurchen boats, and the small wooden boats piled up with firewood and grass, all kinds of boats sailed away from the wharf trestle and rowed deep and shallow, large and small water traces, and sailed towards the open lake.

A bright red sun rises over the lake. The ships that had arrived formed a huge battle formation on the water, and new ships of all sizes were constantly joining them. After forming a formation on the surface of Wuhu Lake, the Liao Army's naval division immediately sailed into the river and came downstream. Wherever the sailor passed, the sound of the Hu Ji corresponded, and the Ma Bujun on the shore also shouted loudly and cheered, and the drums were like thunder. In the several days of gunboat fighting, the commander of the Liao army's naval division also felt some doorways, the big war ships equipped with iron barrel guns were in the middle of the battle columns, on the periphery of the iron barrel gunboats were medium-sized warships, and on the periphery of the warships were light boats such as boats, and in the middle of the small boats were a few fireboats full of firewood and grass. On the periphery of the entire naval array, there are also some old-fashioned warships with small boats cruising around the perimeter......

The Liao army is extremely vigorous, in contrast, the Song army seems to be cowering, Yangluo Fort is originally choked on the east bank of Wuhu, the defenders in the fort are tens of thousands, and there are 100 heavy iron barrel cannons, but the guard general Yao Yuanyi only ordered to tightly guard the forts in four places, in order to prevent the Liao army from attacking the fort on a large scale, and did not send a single shot to prevent the Liao people from entering the river. In the lower reaches of the river, the large and small warships of the Song army's naval division were nervously arrayed accordingly. Contrary to the Liao army's tight protection of the gunboats in the formation, the Song army's iron barrel gunboats were completely exposed outside the formation. Dozens of iron barrel gunboats barely lined up in a line of geese on the river, and the three Han warships and his large and small warships dragged behind sparsely, and the entire formation of the naval division appeared to be disorderly and loose.

"Good boy, what a big formation!" Han Shizhong put down the clairvoyant mirror and laughed mockingly.