After the New Year, the aftermath of the Shangyuan Festival has not yet disappeared, and the beginning of February is quietly coming, and the spring societies in various places begin to beat gongs and drums to get busy.

However, the Song-Liao border is deserted, the countryside is dead silent, from the border to the south within two hundred miles, the countryside is no longer inhabited, including many small towns, small counties are also empty, only pieces of ruins remain.

This was not destroyed by the enemy, but the Song army carried out the clearing of the wall, pulled down all the houses, and took all the girders inside, not only the girders, but also the trees in the field were all cut down, and the originally dense woods became bare.

Regardless of whether it is a girder or a tree, it is a material for making siege weapons, and the Song army will not leave it to the Liao army.

Of course, there are still many trees in the mountainous area near Zhending Mansion, and the trees on the mountain are inexhaustible, but the difficulty of picking wood from the mountain will be greatly increased, and the transportation is also far away, so it is better to transport the siege weapons directly after building siege weapons in Yanshan Mansion.

Not only the trees, but also the bridges in the northern part of Hebei were demolished, and the temporary pontoon bridges built by small boats would disappear at any time if the Khitan cavalry arrived.

On this morning, in front of Baigou in the north of Baozhou, Fan Ning, escorted by hundreds of cavalry, came to the border to check the melting of ice and snow.

Baigou is called Juma River in Liao, starting from Baozhou in the west, flowing into the Yellow River into the sea in the east, about 700 miles long, is the natural dividing line between Song and Liao.

Baigou is also the only river in Hebei that does not freeze in winter, and the water flows continuously all year round.

Fanning stood in front of Baigou and looked closely, the river was wide, at least two miles, and its tributaries rose in spring and poured into Baigou, making the river in Baigou extremely turbulent.

"Fan Xianggong, I'm afraid that the Liao army won't be able to cross the river with this water potential!"

The general who accompanied Fan Ning to inspect Baigou was none other than Yang Wenguang, who was experienced and knew that the cavalry was impassable by looking at the water potential.

Fan Ning frowned and asked, "How did the Liao army cross the white ditch last year?" ”

A general next to him said: "The Liao army has a kind of river crossing bridge, which can be temporarily assembled on the river surface, and there is no problem in crossing the river when the water flow is calm, but now this kind of water potential, the temporary bridge is not good, according to the experience of previous years, about mid-February, the water will calm down." ”

Fanning nodded, "Let's go to Dingzhou again!" ”

Fan Ning turned his horse's head and led everyone to the west, and then walked dozens of miles to the west, to the junction of Baozhou and Dingzhou, Baigou turned around here and went north, the plain also disappeared, the mountains were undulating, this is the Changshan Mountain Range of the Taihang Mountain System, the more west, the steeper the mountain, the Song army built countless dangerous passes in the dangerous places, making it difficult for the Liao army to cross.

There is a small town called Longwei Town at the junction of Baozhou and Dingzhou, which has been burned down, but this is not the Song army's strong wall and clear the wilderness, but the Liao soldiers crossing the border.

Commander Wang Yu bowed down and said: "Qiyu Fan Xianggong, in March last year, the Liao soldiers entered Dingzhou from here, and later besieged Tang County, where Baigou turned north, and the Liao soldiers crossed Baigou in their own territory, and then killed along the west bank of Baigou, this area is flat, it is difficult to stop the cavalry, and seven out of ten Liao soldiers are killed from this mouth into Hebei. ”

Fanning saw that this opening was four or five miles wide, and the terrain was flat, and it was indeed difficult for the cavalry to stop it, but he didn't quite understand, "Why don't you build a wall here?" ”

"This was originally a big bazaar, there is a clear provision in the alliance of Song, Liao and Tanyuan, here as the location of the mutual market between the two sides, both sides are not allowed to build the city wall, Longwei Town gathered thousands of merchants in that year, very prosperous."

Fan Ning sneered, "After prosperity, it will be a piece of chicken feathers, and if the city wall is not repaired, it will be easy for the Liao army to attack Hebei through this gap, and they don't care if it is a market or not." ”

Commander Zhang Li hugged his fists and said: "Qiqi Fan Xianggong, after the Liao army retreated last year, Han Xianggong also considered building a city wall here, but the generals all suggested not to build a city wall, and Han Xianggong adopted everyone's opinions. ”

"What's the reasoning?"

Fanning is a little strange, the mouth that is five or six miles long is not blocked, but it is open here, what is the reason.

Zhang Li continued: "This is actually an opening for the Liao cavalry, so that the Liao cavalry can enter from here, with Baosai County in the southeast, Suicheng County in the east, Tang County in the southwest, Changshan Mountain Range in the west, and Dingxian County in the south. ”

Fan Ning nodded, this plan is actually to move the defense line inward, forming an inner defense line, not an outer defense line, this is not impossible, the effect will not be too great, the Liao army is not a fool, they can completely divide the army into two roads, one east and one west to attack at the same time, and this is too much to contain the strength of the Song army, and the four cities have to invest heavy troops.

Although Fanning is not very in favor of this plan, the plan can also be flexible, such as closing the door and beating the dogs, allowing the enemy to go south, and then cutting off the return channel, so he nodded and said: "Let's take a look first!" ”

Fan Ning carefully inspected the passage again, only to see that the terrain here is low-lying, the north is the mountainous area of Yizhou, the south is a gentle hilly area, and the passage is surrounded by a basin with a radius of more than ten miles.......

The camp in Hejian Fuzhong was steaming, the military camp covered an area of nearly 10,000 acres, and 200,000 troops were stationed, and the whole winter, 200,000 troops were spent in high-intensity training.

In addition, more than one million stone grain and countless armor materials were hoarded in the major county towns at the same time, and the soldiers were strong and strong, and the food and materials were sufficient.

Di Qing's best thing is to train the army, he can quickly reincarnate a weak brigade, coupled with the assistance of Yang Wenguang, the training of the 200,000 army is arranged in an orderly manner, and a positive competitive atmosphere has been formed in the entire military camp.

Fanning used the 30,000 taels of gold and 100,000 horses of silk awarded to him by the Son of Heaven as a training reward fund, which also inspired the enthusiasm of the low-level generals to actively train the soldiers.

Fan Ning returned to the tent, and Liu Kui came in and said, "Enlighten the minister, there is an important military report!" ”

"You say, what's the important military intelligence?" Fanning asked, sitting up.

"Two pieces of news, one is that the Liao Emperor Yelu Hongji sent the king of the Northern Courtyard Yelu Chao to lead 50,000 troops to suppress the Jurchen Wanyan Division, the Jurchen tribe rioted one after another, raised troops to resist the Khitan army, it is rumored that the Wugu Department of the Liao State and the Enemy Lie Department also followed the Jurchens to rebel, and the Liao State added 50,000 troops to quell the rebellion, which should be the success of Xianggong's counter-strategy."

Fan Ning nodded, the Jurchen tribe was deeply oppressed by the Liao State, and they were already very dissatisfied, and it only took one spark to ignite the fire of rebellion among the Jurchens.

As for the Wugu Department and the Enemy Lie Department has always been the trouble of the Liao State, although the Liao State unified Mobei by force, but this is only a superficial unity, the grassland departments have always been dissatisfied with the rule of the Liao State, for more than 100 years, the Wugu Department and the enemy Lie Department have been intermittently resisting the rule of the Liao State, which has continued until the destruction of the Liao State.

"What's the other news?"

"Another piece of news was sent by Yang Gui with a letter eagle, he said that Youzhou had gathered 100,000 troops, and Xiao Hanjianu was commanded by Xiao Hanjianu from the south, and Yelu Zhongxi, the Xuanhui envoy of Nanjing Dao, recruited 50,000 troops from all over Nanjing Dao."

Fan Ning paced back and forth, there were 100,000 troops in Yanshan Mansion before, but Yanshan Mansion does not refer to Youzhou, but also includes Yizhou, Zhuozhou, Jizhou, Danzhou, Jingzhou, Pingzhou, Guihua Prefecture and other places, at least half of the previous 100,000 troops were stationed in various places, and now Youzhou has gathered 100,000 troops, obviously excluding the local army of Yanshan Mansion, indicating that Liao has increased troops to Youzhou.

"Is there any news from Western Xia?" Fanning asked again.

"Yes! The seven-year-old new emperor Li Bingchang of Western Xia ascended the throne, and the Empress Dowager Liang held great power, and the Liao State sent a delegation to Western Xia to ask Western Xia to send troops to the Song Dynasty. ”

Now that Fanning can basically judge that Yelu Hongji is going to send troops to Hebei to avenge the burning of the Tokyo Imperial Palace, he pondered for a moment and said: "Pass my order and summon all the army commanders to come to the commander's tent to discuss the matter!" ”

Soon, the four commanders, the four commanders and the twenty commanders rushed to the commander's tent, and the deputy commander Di Qing and the deputy logistics commander Gao Zunfu also hurried over, in addition, the judge Zhang Kai and the staff battalion Sima Liu Kui, and the secretary of the army Han Qi and other seven or eight civilian officials also attended the meeting.

"Ladies and gentlemen, according to the latest information, Xiao Hanjianu served as the southern envoy, and is currently gathering 100,000 troops in Youzhou, and at the same time recruiting 50,000 troops in various parts of Yanshan Mansion, plus 50,000 garrisons in Yanshan Mansion, in this way, the total strength of the Liao State in Yanshan Mansion will reach 200,000 people, which will be a severe test for us, but we have a naval army from the side, and the Liao State does not dare to pour troops south, from the situation of my investigation this time, I infer that the Liao army will go south from the east and west, focusing on attacking the city, once they capture the city, It was inevitable that the city would be massacred in retaliation for the humiliation of the burning of the Imperial Palace in Tokyo, so I considered distributing 200,000 troops to each city and defending the city together with the border army. ”