The sparkling whale sea. A huge fleet of hundreds of 5,000-stone steam warships was sailing north.

The Whale Sea is today's Sea of Japan, and the Liao State is called the East China Sea, and the fleet has passed through the narrowest strait to the north of Whale State, this fleet set off from Han County, Kunzhou, loaded with 20,000 Song cavalry, and went to Pingyi City in Whale State.

Pingyi City is located in the northernmost part of Whale State, is facing the mouth of the black water, began to build in March of the year before last, completed in October last year, the circumference is about 20 miles, the city is strong and tall and strong, there are no people in the city at present, only two thousand permanent troops, a large number of grain and grass materials are stored.

Without this logistics base, coming from Kunzhou, which is 2,000 miles away, even a steamship would have to travel for five or six days, and food supply would have become a major problem.

The plan to establish a base in Whale Prefecture and attack the hinterland of Liao from Heishui was put forward by Fanning more than ten years ago, and it is not until today that it is finally implemented.

There are many conditions that need to be gradually matured to be met, such as steam ships, so that the fleet can go against the grain, and a supply base must be established in Whale State to ensure the food supply of the army.

Now, it's all ripe.

The main commander in charge of this northern front operation was Sima Zhangqi of the staff battalion, and Fan Ning's most trusted right-hand man, although the Song army could not avoid the fall of the Jurchens, but the responsibility did not lie with Zhang Qi, who was preparing for war in Kunzhou at that time.

The Song Dynasty was the chief general of the civil government, assisted by the military general, and Zhang Qi's deputy general was Liu Kun, who was also a veteran in his fifties.

Zhang Kai stood on the deck, staring at the waves in the distance, but the person fell into deep thought.

At this time, Liu Kun slowly walked to his side and sighed softly: "Who would have thought that we would actually enter the nest of the Liao Kingdom from the far north!" ”

Zhang Qi nodded slowly, "This will be a bloody journey!" ”

"Zhang Sima, the war itself is bloody."

"I knew from the day I was ordained I knew what I was going to face, but the slaughter of women and children was not something I wanted to do."

He looked back at Liu Kun, "What does General Liu think?" ”

Liu Kun said lightly: "Women and children are a burden on the battlefield, not wealth, I agree with Sima Zhang's suggestion, you don't need to kill them, just slaughter all the men." ”

Zhang Qi didn't speak, and at this time, a soldier pointed to the distance and shouted: "That's the harbor, we've arrived!" ”

Zhang Qi also saw the majestic Pingyi City, and couldn't help but praise: "Great! The starting point of sweeping the Diyi. ”

'Woo-' The ship sounded its whistle, and a low horn sounded at the head of the city to welcome the arrival of the fleet.

Hundreds of warships can be moored in the bay, and by October it freezes and does not thaw until March, spending half of the year in a cold world of ice and snow.

The military city was built on the cliff, and a general walked down from the cliff with a dozen soldiers, stepped forward and saluted: "See Sima Zhang, see General Liu!" ”

This general is called Wu Baisheng, he is a commander, and he is the rotating general of this year's Whale State, and the Pingyi City garrison has tried to implement a rotation system, changing half of the defense every year, and staying in the cold Whale State for a long time has a great impact on the soldiers.

"General Wu, the guide you mentioned in the eagle letter is here?" Zhang Qi asked.

"It's in the military city, please follow me to the military city to rest!"

20,000 troops and horses disembarked one after another and entered the military city to rest.

Zhang Kai followed Wu Baisheng to a courtyard in the military city, there were soldiers standing guard outside, Zhang Kai walked into the courtyard, only to see two old men sitting under a big tree in the yard basking in the sun.

Just last month, the Song soldiers patrolling the Heishui estuary found more than a dozen canoes, carrying a group of old and weak women and children, about twenty or thirty people, this is a group of surviving tribesmen of the Baishan tribe of the Jurchen tribe, the Jurchen men were killed, the old and weak were also executed, the women and children were assigned to the Khitan and Xi tribes as slaves, almost no survived, only a small number of old and weak women and children of the Baishan tribe were able to escape, and the Song soldiers found that it was some of them.

Wu Baisheng invited the two old men into the room and introduced them to Zhang Qi, and a soldier acted as an interpreter for them.

"They said that the men were all killed, it was too miserable, they were tied up in groups and their heads cut off and thrown into the black water, the old people were also executed, and the women were collectively humiliated by their army, and they were given to the Khitan tribes as slaves, and the children were also sent together."

Zhang Qi said to the soldiers: "You ask them, are they familiar with the places where these Khitan tribes are distributed?" ”

The soldier asked a few words and said to Zhang Qi: "They said that they were hunters more than ten years ago, and they were familiar with every inch of land, and they knew the gathering place of each Khitan tribe. ”

The Khitan is also divided into raw and ripe, and the ripe fan lives in the Sijing City Pond, which is greatly affected by sinicization, and the Shengfan is still a traditional tribe, adheres to the tradition, and makes a living from fishing and hunting, and many fierce Khitan infantry are requisitioned from the Shengfan tribe.

An old man said cautiously: "We are very willing to lead the way, I don't know when to set off?" ”

Zhang Qi smiled slightly: "I will leave in a month at the latest, and I am also waiting for the order to send troops, so we just wait patiently." ”

..........

At the same time that the Song Dynasty was actively preparing for war, the war preparedness of the Liao State was also accelerating, and the large amount of wealth obtained from the hands of the emperor's relatives solved the urgent financial needs of the Liao State, but Yelu Hongji knew very well in his heart that this money would not last long, and if he wanted to restore the former wealth of the Liao State, he had to rely on the annual coins of the Great Song Dynasty to maintain.

The amount of New Year's coins that Yelu Hongji was looking forward to changed again and again, the year before last he asked the Great Song Dynasty for one million taels of silver and one million horses of silk, as well as 200,000 quintals of tea cakes, but now it is not, and the amount of coins he expects is three million taels of silver and three million horses of silk and 500,000 quintals of tea cakes.

But the year coin is only one of the dividends of this war, and it is necessary to plunder the wealth and population of the Song Dynasty, and to obtain more land, which are all wealth that needs to be captured by war.

In the room, Yelu Hongji listened to the report of Xiao Jiuge, the privy envoy of the Northern Court, and the Great Song Emperor inspected the war preparations in Taiyuan, Yelu Hongji looked at Taiyuan City on the map, and he squinted and smiled.

He was very aware of the Song Dynasty's war preparations in Taiyuan, millions of stone of grain were transported into the city, the garrison in the city was at least seventy or eighty thousand, and hundreds of thousands of people all moved south, and Hebei, the Song Dynasty implemented a strong wall in Taiyuan Mansion to clear the wilderness, this is Fanning's means, Yelu Hongji is very familiar, but unfortunately Fanning is still a little too tender, after the last tragic lesson, how can the Liao army consume a large number of troops in the siege.

Only when the soldiers are under the city of Bianliang is the best attack, forcing the Song Dynasty to sign an alliance under the city.

After pondering for a long time, Yelu Hongji turned back to a group of important ministers and said, "Send troops in ten days!" ”

........

In the second year of Pingxia in the Great Song Dynasty, the seventh year of Xianyong in the Liao State, and on the seventh day of the fifth month, the Liao State invested 200,000 troops to launch a full-scale attack of the Song army.

The army of the Liao State was divided into two lines, east and west, and the king of the north courtyard of the western line, Yeluna, also served as the envoy to the west, leading 120,000 cavalry from Datong Mansion to the south and attacking Taiyuan.

Zhao Ji, the emperor of the Great Song Dynasty who inspected the war preparations in Taiyuan, had left Taiyuan by boat five days ago, and was on his way back to the capital, and three days later, the 120,000 troops broke through the Loufu Pass and killed Taiyuan overwhelmingly, and the entire northern part of Taiyuan was completely shrouded by a boundless killing machine.

On the eastern front, Xiao Weixin, the privy envoy of the Southern Yuan, was the main commander, and Gao Yuanji, the envoy of the Huaihua Army, was the forward general, leading an army of 80,000 to cross the sea to attack Dengzhou.

Located in the middle of the Yalu River, the naval stronghold had 150 5,000-stone ships purchased from Japan, which was enough to carry 80,000 troops and a large number of siege equipment.

The war horses were ready for the second batch of transportation, and the first task of the Liao army was to capture Dengzhou and make Dengzhou a foothold for the Liao State on the Shandong Peninsula.

Yelu Hongji also knew very well that this was an extremely risky military operation, so he strictly adhered to this battle plan, as the top secret of the Liao State, only a dozen important ministers knew about it.

The base of the Song Dynasty naval army was in Laizhou, about 200 miles away from Dengzhou, and when the Song army found a large number of Liao warships in the open sea, it was too late to intercept them.

Yelu Hongji's deduction was not bad, if the Song Dynasty did not know about the Liao army's plan in advance, it was likely that the Liao State would make a time difference and the landing would be successful.

It's a pity that Yelu Hongji couldn't have imagined that the two important ministers around him had secretly betrayed him and leaked this top-secret information to the Song Dynasty.

In the early morning, the wind on the Yalu River was very strong, blowing from the north, which was very suitable for the fleet to go south, and the 80,000 troops were lining up to board the ships, including 30,000 Khitan troops, 30,000 Xi troops and 20,000 Bohai Navy, and the soldiers only carried ten days' dry rations, in fact, they would arrive in Dengzhou in the early hours of tomorrow morning.

There are more than 20 boatmen on each big ship who are responsible for pulling the sails and steering, and in a short time, the 80,000 troops have all lined up on the ship, and the commander Xiao Weixin did not accompany the ship in the first batch, but led the 80,000 troops by Gao Yuanji to cross the sea.

Xiao Weixin gave an order, "Let's go!" ”

The horn sounded, and one hundred and fifty large ships lowered their bundled sailboats, and with the help of the wind, they sailed one after another to the shore, heading towards the Yellow Sea, a hundred miles away.