Under Fanning's deployment, the 200,000 army was stationed in 13 fortified cities in northern Hebei and 21 county towns in central Hebei, and joined forces with 100,000 border troops in another place, and the 300,000 army formed a three-level defense system from point to line and from line to surface.

On 14 March, the Liao army, composed of 60,000 cavalry and 40,000 infantry, marched south from Bazhou and Baozhou respectively, officially opening the prelude to the Liao's large-scale invasion of Hebei.

At the same time, the state and county governments in central Hebei also issued warnings to mobilize people to go up to the mountains or into the cities to temporarily escape the war.

With the Liao army invading the south, the atmosphere in the capital also became suddenly tense, commerce was affected, and transactions in various markets became cold, on the contrary, public places such as teahouses and restaurants were brisk with business, crowded with guests who came to talk about the war.

Baohe Restaurant is also doing hot business, the guests are talking loudly about the Song Army's defense, some guests agree with the Song Army's strategy of stabilizing the enemy and not attacking easily, and some guests think that the Song Army is too conservative and dare not attack boldly.

In the elegant room on the third floor, Liu Suifeng looked at the wicker box on the ground with an expectant face, but Wang Qinying shook his head at the two hundred taels of gold, "I took too much risk with this cup of iron fire thunder, and in the end I paid five hundred yuan to buy a soldier to get this iron fire thunder, two hundred and thirty-three iron fire mines are numbered, once the ship arrives in Kunzhou, it will immediately find that one is missing, and the court will track it down, and I will also be a suspect, so I want three hundred taels of gold, and I can't do it without a penny." ”

Liu Suifeng was speechless for a long time, they bought information, two hundred taels of gold was already the highest price, and Wang Qinying actually asked for three hundred taels of gold.

But Liu Suifeng also knew the importance of Iron Fire Thunder to them, so he had to sigh secretly and said, "Can you let me take a look first." ”

"Yes!"

Wang Qinying lifted the wicker box to the table, and lifted the lid of the box, inside was a black guy like a pumpkin, Liu Suifeng tried the weight, weighing about 20 catties, the top was a teacup-like ***** Qinying took off the iron lid, a long roll of fire rope was revealed, and the other end of the fire rope went deep into the fire thunder.

Wang Qinying pointed to a line of inscription on the iron hat, "This is its number, and there is the same number at the bottom." ”

Liu Suifeng looked at the number on the hat, and the iron hat was engraved with the number 974.

"Is this it?" Liu Suifeng turned around and asked Wang Yong.

Wang Yong didn't know the formula, nor did he know the technology of making mines, but he had seen an iron fire thunder once, and the first iron fire thunder test was conducted in the test ground of the Firearms Division.

He gently stroked the iron fire thunder with a black metallic luster, nodded and said, "That's it, it's exactly the same as what I saw." ”

"It seems to be a little lighter."

"In the early days, the iron fire and thunder were relatively light!" Wang Yong explained.

"Alright! Then it is a word, three hundred taels of gold. ”

Liu Suifeng took another hundred taels of gold and added it to it, and pushed a plate of thirty ingots of gold to Wang Qinying, "I hope our cooperation will go smoothly next time!" ”

The Liao State Intelligence Point received a new task, in addition to asking them to obtain the formula and manufacturing technology of iron fire and thunder at all costs, and also let them get the drawings of the Wanshi Fu ship as soon as possible, and the overseas Jingluo Mansion happened to be involved in the manufacture of the Fu ship and other ships.

Zhou Que pinned his hopes on Wang Qinying again.

Wang Qinying nodded, "I'll do my best!" ”

He put away three hundred taels of gold and left the private room without looking back.

Liu Suifeng gave Wang Yong another fifty taels of silver, and as a thank you for his appraisal fee, he walked towards the inn with a heavy wicker box.

In the shopkeeper's room of the inn, Zhou Que has been waiting for a long time.

When Liu walked into the room with the wind, he immediately took the wicker box and put it on the table to carefully inspect the iron fire and thunder inside.

Liu Suifeng pouted and said, "That bastard actually asked for three hundred taels of gold in the end. ”

"No problem!"

Zhou Que said casually: "As long as he can get the Iron Fire Thunder, even if he asks for a thousand gold, I will give it!" ”

He took a closer look at the Iron Fire Thunder, and it was exactly the same as some of the clues he had, the iron shell had a cap, the hat was engraved with a number, and the shape was the same as the pumpkin that had been popular in recent years.

"What did Wang Yong say?" Zhou Que asked again.

"He said it was true, I think the weight is a bit light, he said that the early ones were lighter, and then they gradually gained weight."

Zhou Que also felt a little light, he got the clue is more than fifty catties, but this is only more than twenty catties, more than half lighter, so he is also a little puzzled, Liu Suifeng said this, he can also understand, after all, this is the iron fire thunder with the beginning of the word, it should be the first batch of iron fire thunder, it has been invalid for a long time, but it looks very well maintained, and it is also oiled, so that it has no trace of rust, just like new.

"Alright! Send it out of the city early tomorrow morning and send it to Liao as soon as possible. ”

..........

The West Route Army of the Liao Army consisted of 30,000 cavalry and 20,000 infantry, they went south from the west bank of Baigou at the junction of Baozhou and Dingzhou, all the way to the southeast, their goal was Baosai County, break through Baosai County, get food and material supplies, and then continue to kill Hejian Province, and the East Route Army converged, and will attack Hejian County, the command center of the Song Army.

The Liao army attached more importance to intelligence than the Great Song Dynasty, and they also deployed a large number of spies in various parts of Hebei, and they knew the layout of the Song army well, and the Song army moved all the rural people within two hundred miles of the border to the south.

Xiao Hanjianu has rich combat experience and is good at grasping the key points, and he understands the strategy implemented by Fan Ning, and also sees the advantages and disadvantages of this strategy, the advantage is to rely on the city to offset the advantages of the Liao cavalry, and the disadvantages are also obvious, which can allow the Liao army to concentrate its forces to break through.

Xiao Han's slaves focused on Hejian County, which was the command center of the Song army, and Fan Ning, the commander of the Song army, was stationed here, as long as they stormed Hejian County, other cities of the Song army would inevitably come to help, and they would have the opportunity to besiege the city and send reinforcements.

But it takes time to attack Hejian County, and they must have food and material supplies, and Xiao Han's slaves put this food and material supply point in Baosai County according to the information they have.

Baosai County has always been the focus of logistical supply, with a large warehouse, at least 300,000 stone of grain hoarded, with sufficient food supply, the Liao army can besiege and attack Hejian County for a long time, and there will no longer be the situation last year due to insufficient food supply, and had to withdraw to Liao.

An army of 50,000 men marched to the southeast, and the commander of this Liao army was Xu Guogong and Yelu Kunping, the deputy privy envoy of the Northern Yuan, who carried 600 carts of baggage, mainly tents and siege weapons, and brought 30 days' worth of grain and a large amount of forage.

Yelu Kunping and Xiao Hanjianu both knew very well that once their army went south, the Song army would cut off their food support, at least the food support of the Western Route Army, and if they could not take Baosai City within ten days, the Western Route Army could only abandon Baosai City and rush to Hejian Mansion to join the Eastern Route Army.

The head of Baosai City is as high as three zhang, strong and wide, and a moat three zhang wide was dug last year, and the circumference of the city is 30 li, and the population of the city is about 80,000, ranking fifth among the fourteen large cities on the border.

At present, there are 16,000 garrisons in Baosai City, 8,000 people each in the border army and the forbidden army, which are led by Cao Wenjing, the commander of the forbidden army.

Cao Wenjing was about thirty-seven or eighteen years old, he was a partial brother of the Cao family, but he went from the bottom general step by step to the position of commander, participated in the war against the Western Xia, had rich experience in leading troops and former enemy combat experience, and was not the kind of gold-plated official eunuch son, Fan Ning also took a fancy to him, so he appointed him as the chief soldier of Baozhou, leading 16,000 troops to guard the city of Baosai.

Cao Wenjing has a square face, he is steady and upright, he is fighting in the city, his eyes are sharp looking at the official road in the northwest direction, he has received the news that 50,000 Liao troops are slaughtering towards Baosai City.

"General Cao, what will be a tragic battle next!"

It was the adjutant general Wang Xuan who spoke, he was originally the chief general of the border army in Baozhou, after the merger of the two armies, he became the deputy general, this is not Fanning's discrimination, Wang Xuan's qualifications and experience are not as good as Cao Wenjing, although they are all commanders, but his official rank is one level lower than Cao Wenjing, he is the general of Zhengwupin Dingyuan, and Cao Wenjing is the general of Xuanwei from the fourth grade, let him be the deputy general, everyone has nothing to say, Wang Xuan himself is also convinced.

Cao Wenjing smiled faintly, "There will be no accidents in this big battle, we have 16,000 defenders and 20,000 militiamen, and the opponent's army that can attack the city is only 20,000 infantry, you can't let the Khitan cavalry attack the city!" Not to mention that we also have powerful iron fire mines, and to be honest, I am looking forward to this battle. ”

Wang Xuan also nodded and said, "Before, I didn't understand why Xiao Fan Xianggong wanted to disperse his troops and defend the city, isn't this going to be broken by the enemy army?" Now I understand that a hundred cities are a hundred lines of defense, which is the most effective way to drag down the enemy army and preserve the troops. ”