The siege of Jingcheng Pass has entered the fourth day, and even Fan Ning has rushed to Zhending Mansion, and the Son of Heaven Zhao Ji and the imperial court are very concerned about this matter, whether they can completely annihilate the 120,000 Liao cavalry has become the key to the victory or defeat of this Song-Liao Campaign.

For this reason, the Son of Heaven Zhao Ji specially sent someone to convey the will, of course Zhao Ji did not want to meddle in this matter, but to strengthen Fan Ning's power, he gave Fan Ning the Son of Heaven a gold medal and a sword of the Son of Heaven, with the gold medal can directly remove the senior officials below the second rank of the army, and with the sword of the Son of Heaven can directly kill the generals below the fourth rank.

With the gold medal and the sword of the Son of Heaven, as well as the edict of the Son of Heaven, Fanning's current power is no different from that of the Son of Heaven, even the Son of Heaven cannot casually kill generals above the fourth rank.

Fan Ning's visit to Zhending Mansion is of course not only about Jingcheng Pass, he also has to consider the overall situation, the landing of Liaoyang Mansion on the eastern front, the attack on the rear of the Liao State by the Kunzhou army on the northern line, and the preparation of Jinzhou on the central line to cut off the connection between Youyan and Tokyo Road, and the Liao army on the western front to go south to rescue the Jingcheng trapped army, etc.

"Fan Xianggong, I think we can consider entering Youzhou?"

Di Qing called Fan Ning's official position, which seemed a little alienated, but there was no way, Fan Ning won the gold medal of the Son of Heaven, which was actually used to restrain him Di Qing, otherwise there would be no need for a gold medal at all, and Fan Ning himself had the right to remove the generals below the capital system.

It is precisely because of this relationship that Di Qing seems a little restrained in front of Fan Ning, plus he is over sixty years old, and he already has the caution of an old man.

Seeing that Fan Ning did not express his position, Di Qing continued to suggest: "I have received accurate information, the 80,000 troops of the Liao army in Youyan are mainly concentrated in Youzhou City and Pingzhou, and most of the cities are ungarrisoned, and even Zhuo County, which is closest to Yi County, has only 300 soldiers, and it is almost undefended......

Fan Ning took a few steps and said in a deep voice: "It is unrealistic to completely destroy the Liao State with this battle, my goal is to recover Yanshan Mansion, and then use Yanshan Mansion as the foundation to destroy Liao step by step, but I think it is not the time to send troops to Youzhou, wait a little longer, and wait for the news from Liaoyang Mansion to come." ”

"Fan Xianggong means that the Liao army in Youzhou will go to support Liaoyang Mansion?"

"Definitely, there are already 30,000 troops transferred from Liaoyang Mansion here in Youzhou, and Liaoyang Mansion can transfer these 30,000 troops back at any time, and that is when we will send troops."

Di Qing nodded, "Xianggong is right, it's me who owes it to consideration." ”

"I can't say that, after all, Di Shuai doesn't know the movement in Liaoyang yet."

Fan Ning didn't want to dwell too much on this matter, so he changed the topic and asked, "How is the situation of the Liao army in Jingcheng?" ”

Di Qing saw that Fan Ning had changed the topic, so he also changed his train of thought, and said with a slight smile: "In addition to the night battle on the first day, the Liao army attacked Jingcheng Pass four times in a row, all of which ended in failure and suffered heavy losses. ”

Fan Ning then asked: "How long can the Liao army's food last?" ”

Di Qing hesitated and said: "The situation I know is also a few days ago, and it is estimated that it is meaningless, it is better to ask Yao Dutong directly." ”

Fan Ning nodded, "It's okay, then Dingzhou and Zhendingfu will ask Di Shuai to continue to sit in the town to prevent the Liao reinforcements from coming suddenly, and I will go to Jingcheng Pass now." ”

Fan Ning was not polite to Di Qing, he said to leave, of course, Di Qing did not think of setting a table for Fan Ning to receive the wind banquet, let alone have the intention of staying, just like that, Fan Ning was in Zhending County for less than an hour, so he left the county seat and rushed to Jingcheng Pass.

When Fanning and his three hundred followers arrived at the camp at Jingchengguan, it was already dark.

Yao Sheng, the commander of the capital, was discussing with more than a dozen generals, and when he heard the report, Fan Xianggong arrived immediately, and he hurriedly took the generals to the gate of the camp, and at this time, Fan Ning also arrived.

Yao Sheng led the generals to kneel down on one knee and salute, "The last general will see Fan Xianggong!" ”

"Yao Du is exempt from courtesy, generals, please get up."

Yao Sheng stood up and said respectfully: "Fan Xianggong, please enter the camp!" ”

Fanning shook his head, "Don't go into the camp first, go to Guancheng and have a look!" ”

Jingcheng Pass is on the hill behind the big camp, although the slope is relatively steep, but the mountain road is zigzag, you can go up by horseback.

After a short time, the group entered the city.

More than 1,000 soldiers in the city were busy carrying all kinds of materials, rolling wood and stones, bundles of arrows, barrels of oil, and iron fire thunder in special boxes.

Fanning walked up the gate and looked down the mountain, only to see a bonfire lit in the valley several miles away, which was quite spectacular.

"How many enemy troops are there down the mountain?" Fanning asked.

Yao Sheng took a step forward and said cautiously: "Back to Xianggong, at the beginning, 10,000 people came, and then 50,000 or 60,000 people came, probably adding up to about 60,000 or 70,000, but they were killed at least close to 10,000 people. ”

"How long they can last food, do you know?"

"They didn't carry any food or hay, that's for sure, but we don't know exactly how much dry food they carried, but they've already started killing horses."

Fanning's eyes narrowed, the Liao army would not kill horses unless they had to, and it was likely that their food was exhausted.

"When did the killing of horses begin?"

"Yesterday afternoon, the valley was filled with blood, and they had killed at least five hundred horses."

Fan Ning nodded, regardless of whether the other party's food was exhausted or not, but since it had reached the step of killing the horse, it meant that the other party's food was indeed running out.

At this time, Yao Sheng said again: "I found that they had changed their strategy, no longer attacking Jingcheng Pass, but attacking Niangzi Pass with all their might, it can be said that at all costs, even the soldiers climbed up with corpses on their backs, and the effect of iron fire and thunder was not as fierce as it was at the beginning, many major battles broke out under the Guancheng, and the pressure on the Niangzi Pass side was very great." ”

"Can Cao Wenjing withstand it?"

"You should be able to withstand it, and I received a pigeon letter from him, saying that the effect of fire oil is better than that of iron fire and thunder."

"What are the weaknesses of Iron Fire Thunder?"

Yao Sheng had already fought four fierce battles, and he had also discovered the weakness of Iron Fire Thunder.

"Xianggong, if the iron fire thunder explodes in the air, it is best to explode about three or four feet from the ground, the killing effect is the most ideal, but if it is an explosion on the ground, the iron nails and fragments are flying upward, and the impact air wave is also blocked by the nearest circle of people, more than 20 steps away, if you can lie on the ground in time and cover your ears, then you can basically avoid the explosion of the iron fire thunder, this point, the Liao soldiers have found out, and began to implement, the effect is not bad, I only understand this truth with my own eyes."

Fan Ning is not surprised, this is actually a problem discovered by the Kunzhou firearms craftsmen, but it is difficult to improve, and it can be regarded as a weakness of Iron Fire Thunder! It is not surprising that it was discovered by the Liao soldiers.

He didn't mention it, smiled and asked, "Fire oil works better?" ”

Yao Sheng nodded, "This is also suitable for the place, the Jingcheng Mountain Road is narrow, and a few barrels of fire oil can be paved all over the mountain road, once the fire is ignited, it is useless to lie on the ground, it will only die faster." ”

"By the way, there is one more thing to report to Xianggong!"

"What's the matter?"

Yao Sheng squeaked and whimpered: "The Liao army may be in the hands of ..... There may be iron fire and thunder too!"

"What!"

Fanning was taken aback, and immediately asked sharply, "What's going on?" ”

"There are a few waste mines, they didn't explode after they were hit, two appeared on our side, and three on the Niangzi Pass side, which were taken back by the Liao army."

It turned out that this was the case, Fan Ning breathed a sigh of relief, he also thought that the Liao army had also developed an iron fire thunder.

It is not the first time that a waste mine has appeared, but several times it fell into the river or moat, and several of the moats were found by the Song army afterwards.

After an iron thunderbolt was struck, it was hit hard when it landed, and the fire rope was loosened, and it failed to ignite the gunpowder, which was normal, but Fanning tried his best to ask for the scrap mine to be withdrawn and registered, he knew the consequences of once the Liao State also created an iron fire thunder.

The warships on the white ditch, as well as those border cities, will not be able to be saved, and the whole situation will be reversed.

It is precisely for this reason that Fanning has always asked the troops below not to use iron fire and thunder unless they are forced to do so.

It is because of his prudence that so far not a single Iron Fire Thunder Squib has fallen into the hands of the enemy.

But now that Yao Sheng told himself that the Liao army had obtained five squibs, this strengthened Fanning's determination to never let the Liao army in Jingcheng escape.