In Hejian County, an urgent pigeon letter was sent to Fanning's desk, and the pigeon letter was sent by Yang Gui of Youzhou, reporting the latest situation in Youzhou to Song Jun.

Fan Ning looked at the information and smiled at Di Qing slightly: "Liao Guo has issued a bounty order for the purchase of ships, what does Di Shuai think?" ”

Di Qing said lightly: "It explains three problems, one is that Wanyan Hongji is very clear about the plight of the East Route Army, and he wants to rush to the rescue, the second question shows that the Liao government does not have a ship, but the people have a ship, and the Liao army hopes to collect the civilian boats, and the third question shows that Yi County is safe and sound, otherwise Yelu Hongji will use the Song army of Yi County to exchange with us." ”

Fanning nodded, and asked the judge next to him, Zhang Qi, "What is Sir's opinion?" ”

Zhang Qi bowed slightly, "The humble position agrees with Di Qing's opinion, but the humble position adds that it seems that the Liao army has not yet had the idea of solving the problem through negotiations." ”

"Why don't you want to negotiate?"

"Maybe he can't put down his face, or maybe Emperor Liao hasn't realized the seriousness of the problem, and he thinks that the Liao Army can solve the current predicament of the Eastern Route Army."

Fan Ning took two steps and said, "You mean, they are sure that they can break through the blockade of Baigou by the Song army's warships?" ”

"I think it can be understood from two aspects, on the one hand, what Xiang Gong said, they feel that they are sure that they can break through the blockade of the Song army's warships, and on the other hand, they want to exchange the Song army's prisoners of war in Yixian for the Eastern Route Army."

Fan Ning pondered for a long time, and when he saw Liu Kui standing on the side, he stopped talking, so he asked with a smile: "Does Liu join the army have any suggestions?" ”

Liu Kui bowed and said: "It is recommended to send cavalry boats, and the scouts can be put on the north bank at any time to explore the movements of the Liao army, so that we can grasp in advance which direction they cross the river from." ”

A cavalry ship is a large ship that can carry cavalry, generally at least a warship of five thousand stones, the Song army has a lot, but there is no one on Baigou, Fanning nodded, "It can be adopted!" ”

He said to the crowd: "Now the goal of the East Route Army is also very clear, they are stationed on the south bank of Baigou, and they no longer run around, they are desperately guarding their little grain and grass, waiting for rescue, which shows that they have close ties with Yelu Hongji, and it is estimated that they are sending people to swim across the river, which is the key reason why Yelu Hongji is in control of the situation, and now what we have to do is to increase intelligence input, increase the number of ships on Baigou, and it is best to completely block the river, and even the messenger can't pass." ”

..........

Fanning made the latest arrangement, on the basis of the original 500 warships blockading Baigou, another 300 thousand-stone warships, bringing the number of warships on Baigou to 800, and another five 5,000-stone cavalry ships, each carrying 50 cavalry, 250 cavalry landed on the north bank of Baigou, divided into five teams to go north, to explore the situation of the main force of the Liao army.

Three days later, the Song army warships on Baigou got the news that 100,000 Liao troops were marching towards the north bank of Baxian County, and Yelu Hongji's car was also coming, which was the Liao Emperor's personal expedition.

At the same time, the Liao army collected more than 100 small boats from the rivers of Nanjing Road and were heading towards Baigou from the four rivers, and the 300 warships of the Song army also quickly assembled near Baxian County, preparing to snipe the Liao army's crossing of the river.

Two days later, 100,000 Liao troops arrived on the north bank of the Juma River, and the army set up a company camp on the north bank for dozens of miles, and a hundred small boats did not dare to enter the Juma River, and were directly transported by land by the army.

Yelu Hongji drove his own expedition, rode a horse to patrol on the north bank, hundreds of guards surrounded and protected him, Yelu Hongji looked at the white river, the Song army's warships were clearly visible on the river, Yelu Hongji sighed secretly, the Song army has always been a large army and the Liao army to fight, this time I somehow woke up, I actually knew that the war ship was used to block the Juma River, the Liao army relied too much on cavalry, did not pay attention to water warfare, this time they had to suffer.

At this time, there was a rumbling sound behind him, and when Yelu Hongji turned around, he saw more than a dozen healthy cattle pulling a huge flatbed cart over, and two small boats were placed on it, which made Yelu Hongji frown, afraid of the Song army to this extent? Even ships had to be dragged over by land.

Yelu Chongguang, the secretary of the military department who accompanied Yelu Hongji next to him, suddenly said: "Your Majesty, why do you have to use a boat as a base, can't you use a wooden raft?" We made a wooden row with huge wooden nails and put it in the water to connect it, isn't it also a pontoon bridge? This eliminates the need to go around collecting ships. ”

Yeluhongji also felt that it made sense, and he turned back to the main general Yeluwende and asked, "Is this possible?" ”

Yeluwende bowed and said: "Your Majesty, I have also considered using the raft method, because the raft is relatively shallow, and the river can easily overflow the pontoon bridge, and there is no problem for people to cross the pontoon bridge, but the war horses are easily frightened, and they refuse to move forward when they touch the water." ”

Yelu Chongguang reacted very quickly, his eyes rolled and he said: "Since the raft is too shallow, let's make a big wooden box, as high as a boat, so there should be no problem." ”

Yelu Hongji looked at Yelu Wende again, and Yelu Wende smiled bitterly and said: "It is better to use a wooden box than to use a large leather raft, Chongguang Shangshu, the question is not what kind of river crossing tools to use, but what do we use to compete with the Song army warships?" ”

Yelu Hongji was a little annoyed, he snorted heavily, "Left is not good, right is not good, then what use do I want you civil and military ministers?" ”

His face sank and he turned his horse away, Yelu Chongguang shook his head, and said to Yelu Wende: "You have annoyed Your Majesty! Your Majesty is going to act, but you always say no, and you can't come up with a good way, of course Your Majesty is angry, in my opinion, act first and then say, fail a few more times, and you will always find a way to succeed. ”

After speaking, Yelu Chongguang also walked away quickly, leaving Yelu Wende alone on the spot.

At this time, a senior general said: "General, there is a bit of an idea of being lowly. ”

Yeluwende's spirits perked up, and he hurriedly said, "You say, what is the best way?" ”

"General, we build a pontoon bridge for two purposes, one is to bring back the Eastern Route Army on the other bank, and the other is to send them wood, in fact, there is no need to consider the cavalry problem."

"No way!"

Yeluvind immediately rejected this suggestion, "Why don't you consider the cavalry, do you want to let them lose tens of thousands of war horses and flee back?" ”

Another general said: "It's not bad to build a pontoon bridge with wooden boxes, at least we can replenish them at any time, and then lock the wooden boxes with iron chains, and put some sharp wooden stakes on the wooden boxes, and the Song warships may not dare to hit them directly." ”

Another general said: "The soldiers bring more sand, the Song army attacks with fire oil, we bury it with sand at any time, and deploy the crossbow army to confront the Song army." ”

Another general said: "Use some more large logs to pile in front of the pontoon, so that the Song warships can't directly hit the pontoon bridge, and maybe they will capsize." ”

As soon as you say a word, a plan will gradually take shape.

Jeruvand immediately ordered thousands of craftsmen to make large wooden boxes, and overnight, the craftsmen made thousands of large wooden boxes, and placed sharp stakes on both sides of the wooden boxes, and the large wooden boxes were connected together by iron chains.

But the severe test was how to install these pontoon bridges, and the Song army could not wait for them to install them before attacking, let alone allow them to deploy calmly.

Even their first steps are difficult to complete.

The first step in installing the pontoon bridge is to pull two long cables between the north bank and the river island, and fix the pontoon bridge on the river surface, it is like the girder of the house, without the support of the girder, the roof is easy to collapse, and the same is true for building the pontoon bridge, without two long cables to fix, the pontoon bridge will not be able to stabilize on the water surface, and will soon be washed away by the river.

Of course, there is another way, that is, to drive wooden stakes in the water, and wooden stakes can be driven near the bank of the Juma River, but the water in the center of the river is too deep, and the water at the bottom of the river is turbulent, so it is difficult to drive piles, so they use the method of pulling ropes.

Several soldiers holding the rope just arrived in Jiangxinzhou, a big boat came quickly, the boat was full of arrows, several soldiers had nowhere to hide, they were killed by arrows, the long rope was also cut into several sections by the soldiers of the Song army, and the rope plan of the Liao army failed completely.

But the arrow has been wound, can not be missed, the Liao army rope failed, they had to switch to piling, first fixed the initial section of the large wooden box, the middle part of the fixation is assisted by the soldiers rowing boat, although the water is very large, but the large wooden box is connected with iron chains, at most let the pontoon bridge deform, and is not easy to be washed away.

In just one hour, the Liao soldiers laid two rows of 120 wooden stakes and laid 30 large boxes at a distance of 20 zhang along the coast.

Seeing that the piling was effective, Yelu Hongji immediately ordered, "Continue piling!" ”

Hundreds of soldiers continued to drive piles in front of the wooden box, sharpening one end of pine wood several feet long, and digging deep into the silt at the bottom of the river, and two wrestlers struck with a huge hammer from above, so that the stakes penetrated the bottom of the river little by little.

To the surprise of the Liao army, it was possible to lay a wooden stake in the middle of the river, and this discovery greatly excited the Liao army, and the piling speed was accelerated, and in the morning of the next day, a pontoon bridge with a length of one mile had connected the north bank with Jiangxinzhou.