Fan Ning was in Dengzhou at this time, he did not accompany the Son of Heaven to Taiyuan to inspect, but waited for news on the Shandong Peninsula, and six days earlier he received an urgent eagle letter from Liaoyang Province that the Liao army would send troops to attack the Great Song Dynasty on the seventh day of the fifth month.

Fanning immediately sent a letter to Taiyuan, asking the Son of Heaven to withdraw from Taiyuan City in time, and he immediately rushed to Dengzhou.

Whether it was fighting against Western Xia or fighting with Liao, the most he said on the table was the battle of national strength, and even similar articles were frequently published in newspapers.

But there is also an extremely hidden strategy hidden under the table, that is, to annihilate the living forces as much as possible, from the war against the Liao State the year before last to the battle to destroy the Xia last year, Fanning's strategic thinking can be seen.

This is actually a very precise strategic strike, grasping the biggest weakness of the Liao State or the Western Xia, the population of the ethnic group is small, the party members of the Western Xia are only more than one million, and although the Liao State controls the vast land, the Khitan people of the own nationality are also up to two million.

Once its population reaches a certain limit, the empire it has built will soon fall apart.

Fanning also saw through this, so all his strategies and tactics were considered from the destruction of the enemy's living forces, and this warship scam was the same, using one hundred and fifty ships of five thousand stones to lure the Liao army into hell.

One hundred and fifty warships had already sailed out of the mouth of the Yalu River, which was still more than a hundred miles away from Shenmi Island, and was slightly deviated to the north, and the Song army base could not find them.

One hundred and fifty large ships loaded with 80,000 Liao troops sailed in the direction of Dengzhou, thousands of miles away.

As soon as the Liao convoy sailed out of the mouth of the Yalu River, the Song army patrol ships that were lying in ambush more than 30 miles away discovered them.

A scout brigade commander used a monocular to spot a dense small black spot in the distance, and finally came out, and the brigade commander immediately shouted, "Return!" ”

Several sentinel ships quickly turned around and headed for their base a hundred miles to the south.

At noon, more than 300 large and small warships left the harbor and rushed westward, and they divided into three routes, and a group of more than 100 warships headed north, rounding the back of the enemy ships and cutting off the retreat of the Liao army.

The other navy went to the west to prevent the Liao navy from escaping in the direction of the Liaodong Peninsula, and similarly, the third navy was in the east, blocking the route of the Liao warships to Goryeo.

They formed a zigzag and surrounded the Liao fleet from three directions, but the distance was far, and the Liao fleet did not find itself surrounded, and the fleet continued to sail south.

At this time, a Laizhou naval army composed of more than 200 Wanshi warships was already waiting for them quietly in front.

Fanning was on top of a 20,000-stone ship, and the fleet had departed last night and arrived at its intended location an hour earlier.

A general ran up to him and said, "The enemy's warships have appeared fifty miles to the north. ”

Fanning raised the monoculars and concentrated on looking into the distance, and sure enough, he saw countless black spots, he put down the binoculars and asked, "Is the naval army at the base in place?" ”

"It's all in place!"

Fanning nodded and ordered: "Pass my order and go up to battle!" ”

The main ship at the head sounded a long whistle, and two hundred warships headed north to meet the battle.

On the big ship of the Liao army led by Gao Yuanji, he also found that something was wrong, the Liao army did not have a telescope and could not see such a distant place, but their lookout soldiers on the mast found the Song army sentry ship in the east.

The appearance of the sentry ship made Gao Yuanji nervous, although he had no experience in the navy, he knew that the appearance of the patrol meant that the main army was not far away.

At this moment, a sentry shouted from the mast: "Enemy ships have been found ahead!" ”

Gao Yuanji was taken aback, and held the side of the boat to the south to check, the weather was fine, and he could clearly see the situation on the sea in front of him.

I saw countless small black dots appearing on the blue sea, faintly emitting black smoke, and they were speeding towards me.

Gao Yuanji hurriedly got up in his heart, and hurriedly ordered: "Turn around and go west!" ”

To the east is Goryeo, where there may be a base for the Song army, and to the west is the Liaodong Peninsula, although it is a little farther away, but it is Liao's own land.

The Liao fleet began to turn westward, but the wind direction was northwesterly, which was equivalent to going against the wind, the Liao army fleet was extremely slow, while the Song army warships were powered by steam engines, the speed was extremely fast, and it was getting closer and closer.

Gao Yuanji was in a hurry, and hurriedly shouted: "Hurry up!" Hasten! ”

A general ran up and said: "General, now it's against the wind, and the speed can't be fast, it's better to go to the direction of Goryeo, it will be a tailwind!" ”

Gao Yuanji was stunned for a moment, drew his sword and slashed it fiercely, and scolded: "Why do you only report now!" ”

Gao Yuanji is a descendant of the royal family of the Bohai State, and is currently the first general of the Bohai clan in the Liao State, with a straightforward personality, but a relatively simple mind, he was still proud of the fact that the commander Xiao Weixin gave him the first merit yesterday, and he only now realizes Xiao Weixin's cunning and gives up the danger to himself.

Gao Yuanji also knew at this time that he would not be able to escape the pursuit of the Song army's warships today, so he slashed at the side of the ship and shouted: "Order all the soldiers to go to the deck and prepare to shoot with bows and arrows!" ”

Each ship carried about 700 soldiers, and some ships carried siege weapons, and these ships were not transports, but warships.

More than 500 soldiers rushed onto the deck, standing on the first and second floors of the deck, and the dense bows and arrows were aimed at the Song ships that were getting closer and closer.

On the sea, not only the Song warships appeared in the south, but also the Song warships appeared on the east and west sides, and the warships in the west even began to fight.

In fact, the battle of the Liao warships was meaningless, a warship was hit hard from the side by the Song warship, and immediately stopped the waist and crashed into two sections, revealing the completely rotten ship wood inside, the Liao army was still lucky, and did not encounter strong winds and waves today, otherwise, before they met the Song army fleet, they would all sink.

One after another, the ships were smashed by the big ships of the Song army, and the Liao soldiers calling for help in the sea were everywhere.

Gao Yuanji couldn't care about the wrecked warship, he couldn't take his eyes off the Song army's big ship that was getting closer and closer, this was a huge ship of 20,000 stones, huge in size, with a wheel on each side of the back, rolling in the water, stirring up rolling white waves, pushing the ship forward.

The two big ships staggered by, about a hundred paces apart, and Gao Yuanji shouted, "Release the arrow!" ”

Hundreds of soldiers fired arrows together, and a dense array of arrows were fired at the Song ships.

Suddenly, four windows opened on the side of the Song warship at the same time, and four wooden pipes with black holes stretched out, with a diameter of four feet, aimed at the Liao warship.

Everyone was stunned, not knowing what it was, but with four bangs, a big black iron egg, weighing fifty or sixty pounds, was shot out of each of the four wooden pipes, and the appearance was like a pumpkin, sneering and emitting white smoke.

"It's Iron Fire Thunder!"

Gao Yuanji reacted immediately, shocking his heart, only to hear a few heavy blows, the iron fire thunder directly smashed through four large holes in the wall of the ship, and shot into the belly of the enemy's main ship.

The main ship of the Song army and the warship of the Liao army staggered past and quickly sailed away, but they were less than a hundred paces away, and only heard 'boom! With a loud bang, the first iron fire thunder exploded, and white smoke and waves of air rushed away into the sky with countless broken logs, and many soldiers were also blown up.

Immediately after that, the three iron fire mines exploded almost at the same time, and the huge explosion caused the entire 5,000-stone ship to be blown to pieces, and the smoke was filled, and at this time, the Song army's warship had sailed 300 steps away, and was not affected by the explosion.

At this time, for the first time in naval battles, ballistas were used to fire iron mines, and the four ballistae were repeatedly debugged to reach the best state.

When the smoke cleared, the enemy's main ship had disappeared, the sea was covered with large and small pieces of wood, and some of the hulls that had not been blown up had sunk rapidly, and the sea was full of mutilated corpses that did not like to go, and the main general Gao Yuanji was also separated by the explosion and sank into the sea.

At this time, there was a continuous explosion in the distance, and the ballistas installed by other ships began to exert their power, generally four large ships of 20,000 stones, two large ships of 10,000 stones, and one large ships below 10,000 stones.

Compared to the extremely powerful Iron Fire Thunder. Most of the ships used the method of ramming, ramming the enemy ship from the side, and the rotten hull could not stop the strong impact at all, and they broke off one after another, and one after another the big ships sank in the sea.

The Song army did not accept the surrender, and mercilessly slaughtered the Liao army at sea, and the Liao warships were surrounded on all sides and cornered, and one after another large ships sank into the sea.

At this time, the wind rose on the sea, the wind and clouds changed rapidly, the sky was dark, the storm came, the waves were monstrous, the Song army warships turned around and left, and the remaining dozens of Liao ships rose and fell in the storm, and were ruthlessly torn apart by the waves, and countless soldiers who called for help at sea were hit by a wave and completely engulfed.

The storm did not stop until midnight, and a Song army 3,000-stone warship capsized in the storm, dozens of Song soldiers were missing, and the rest of the Song warships were unharmed.

The 150 warships of the Liao army were generally destroyed by the Song army, while the other half completely perished in the storm and huge waves, and 80,000 Liao troops perished at the bottom of the sea.

This was the heaviest loss since the Liao State, including the 20,000 Liao soldiers who were preparing to cross the sea to Kunzhou two years ago, and the entire 100,000 troops were buried in the sea, and the dream of the Liao State was completely shattered.

The morning glow shone on the surface of the sea, which was sparkling and dyed red, and only some broken wood was still slightly undulating with the waves, but other than that, there was no trace of naval battles.

Fanning stood at the bow of the ship and stared at the sea for a long time, and ordered: "The army is going north!" ”