Most of the previous energy was spent on responding to the invasion of the Goryeo Navy, and information transmission in this era was slow, so Han Qing had a very rough understanding of the war between Song and Liao.
He only knew that the Liao army was really unable to defeat them after a long offensive, so they suddenly turned around and attacked Shenzhou, conquering several cities in Shenzhou, Jizhou and Guantao, and advancing towards the Yellow River.
Now, as he personally set out to collect military information, he suddenly discovered that the situation was far more serious than what the imperial court officials had reported.
After the Liao army divided its forces, it not only simply captured a few cities, but also penetrated the Hebei defense line that the Song Dynasty had carefully deployed for many years.
In one fell swoop, the Hebei frontier army under the generals Yang Si and Yang Yanzhao was divided into two. At the same time, Yang Si stationed in Zhending and Yang Yanzhao stationed in Hejian were both pushed into an extremely embarrassing situation.
If Yang Si and Yang Yanzhao did not lead their troops south to stop Yelu Longxing and Yelu Keli. After the latter continued to break through the Yellow River defense line, they might join forces at the foot of Bianliang City. By then, the consequences would be disastrous.
And if Yang Si and Yang Yanzhao lead their troops south, not only will the two important towns of Pingping and Hejian fall into the hands of the Liao army, but they and their border troops will also most likely be turned around and followed back north on the way south.
The Liao troops who came to pursue them attacked from both sides.
The Song Dynasty lacked cavalry and held on to the city, but could barely win against the Liao army. In a decisive battle in the open field, even if the number of troops was twice that of the Liao army, there was no chance of victory.
In addition, wheat has just been harvested and stored in various places in Hebei. The fall of Shenzhou, Jizhou, Enzhou and other places allowed the Liao army to grab sufficient food supplies.
Even if there is a long-term confrontation with the Song army, at least in the next three to five months, the Liao army will no longer have to worry about running out of food!
"Which idiot is in charge of the overall situation? We should get to the bottom of it, and then check carefully to see if he has colluded with the Liao Kingdom!" Even if he is not familiar with military affairs, as more and more military intelligence is gathered on his desk, Han
Qing Ye was so angry that he wanted to pull out a knife and kill someone.
However, after he was angry, he knew that the idiot in his eyes who was commanding the overall situation was the emperor himself.
The founding emperor of the Song Dynasty relied on the yellow robe to gain power, so he was most worried that his generals would imitate him.
The second generation emperor, Zhao Guangyi, also took the power of command very seriously. He gave little or no autonomy to the generals who led the troops.
The third generation of emperors, the current official Zhao Heng, of course carried forward the tradition.
It is a pity that Zhao Heng inherited the desire for control from the previous two generations of emperors, but did not inherit the general talents of the previous two generations of emperors. Therefore, the Hebei defense line was seriously lacking in depth.
Therefore, after the Khitan soldiers and horses achieved a single breakthrough, they immediately drove in and regarded the Song Dynasty's carefully constructed defense line as nothing!
"If the Yellow River defense line is also arranged in this way, it is hard to say whether there is still an alliance of Chanyuan!" After looking at the Hebei defense line, Han Qing took his eyes back and looked at his eyes and sides.
As a result, if you don't look at it, you will be surprised. When you look at it, you will be shocked again.
From Yucheng on Jingdong East Road to Huazhou on Jingji North Road, there are more than twenty large ferries on both sides of the Yellow River.
However, the only ones that the imperial court sent the Imperial Army to guard were Taji in Chanzhou and Baimadu in Huazhou. All other ferries east of Chanzhou and west of Baimadu were handed over to the hastily organized local troops!
If the Liao army gives up the attack on Chanzhou and makes another strategic detour to the east, the Yellow River defense line will be as useless as the Hebei defense line!
"I just suffered a big loss, but I didn't know how to learn the lesson. It's really an incompetence that drags down the three armies!" Han Qing complained softly while taking a breath of air.
However, he couldn't just watch the Yellow River defense line being broken through by the Liao army. So he simply used the captured sentry boats to form a river patrol fleet and handed it over to his subordinate Zhang Shouzhong, who knew the most about water warfare.
People patrolled along the river.
Although the picket ship is only one-fifth the size of the battleship, it is considered a giant on the Yellow River. The speed and flexibility of the picket ship are also much higher than that of the Bailiu battleship.
Although there was such a river patrol fleet, it could not threaten the enemy forces on the shore. However, within a hundred miles upstream and downstream of Yucheng, it was absolutely impossible for the Liao army to calmly build a pontoon bridge.
As for the ferries, no matter how stupid the generals of the Xiang army in various places were, they knew to temporarily seize all the boats, large and small, near the ferries on both sides of the north and south banks. It would be difficult for the Liao army to collect enough boats from the private sector for them to forcefully cross the Yellow River without spending a month or two!
Facts have proved that Han Qing's response was very timely.
The river patrol fleet went upstream for the first time and discovered a temporary bridge foundation built by the Liao people using sampans and sheepskin rafts at Wangguandu, eighty miles away from the water village.
The bridge foundation has extended to the center of the Yellow River, and continues to extend southward at a speed visible to the naked eye. However, the Song Dynasty Xiang army stationed on the south bank could only widen their eyes and worry, unable to think of any countermeasures.
Zhang Shouzhong didn't have time to ask Han Qing for instructions, and immediately commanded the fleet to bypass the bridge base of the pontoon bridge and go straight upstream. Then he turned around more than 200 steps upstream from the pontoon bridge and rushed down the river.
With the huge body of the sentry boat and the pushing force of the river water on the sentry boat, in the blink of an eye, the bridge foundation that the Liao army had worked hard to build for several days was smashed into pieces.
Immediately afterwards, Zhang Shouzhong led his brothers and used a ballistae to launch a large number of fire oil cans towards the north bank. The bridge construction materials such as wood, tree stumps, sheepskins, ropes and other materials that the Liao army had driven the people to move were also burned.
Yelu Longxiong, the Liao general in charge of building the pontoon bridge, stood on the shore and cursed, but there was nothing he could do.
Two days later, Yanggu County Lieutenant Guo Jin sent people to rescue Han Qing again. At the Shenxian ferry opposite Yanggu County, he found that the Liao army was collecting a large number of people's hidden boats in preparation for forcibly crossing the Yellow River. Xiang of Yanggu County
The army did not have the strength to destroy the obstruction, so they asked Han Tixing to send a navy to resolve the urgent need.
Shenxian Ferry is more than 130 miles away from Han Qing's water village. And Yanggu County is already under the jurisdiction of Jingxi East Road. If someone else is the general, and he does not get the order from Bianliang, he will definitely not be able to
Dare to mind your own business.
However, Han Qing, a layman, had no concept of jurisdiction at all. He immediately sent Zhang Shouzhong out, and also asked Zhang Fan and Dou Sha to bring more than a dozen newly developed gunpowder crossbows to test their power.
The result is, of course, conceivable.
No one in the Liao army understood water warfare at all. The hastily collected ships were mostly fishing boats and ferries. Regardless of their size, strength, and weapons and equipment, they were more than a little different from sentinel ships.
After Zhang Shouzhong arrived, he commanded the sentinel boats to move north in formation. He first fired with crossbows loaded with fish oil cans and lit all the larger ferries into candles. Then, he rammed the fishing boats one by one.
Fell over in the Yellow River.
Xiao Tienu, the commander of the infantry army in the north of the Liao Kingdom, was furious and personally organized six eight-oxen crossbows to line up at the ferry and shoot at the sentinels.
Dou Sha and Zhang Fan took the opportunity to order and replaced the crossbows on the sentinel ship with gunpowder-filled crossbows. They approached within a hundred steps and fired the first salvo, then restored the Eight Ox Crossbow and Xiao Tie Crossbow to parts.
At this time, the Liao army on the shore was in chaos, crying and retreating quickly to avoid becoming the target of crossbows.
Seeing this, Zhang Fan simply led two hundred brothers to the river bank and launched a counterattack against the Liao army under the cover of crossbows. They chased them for more than five miles before stopping, turned around, returned to the ferry and boarded the boat.
This battle turned out to be a rare victory in recent days. More than 150 Khitan heads were collected. The heads of the remaining Xi people, Mohe and Shiwei servants actually filled half a boat.
To the north, Xi Bujun was not considered a high-ranking official in the Liao Kingdom. His rank was similar to that of the lowest-level commander in the Song Dynasty. However, it was the most serious loss since the Liao Army bypassed Zhending City.
The Lu Liao Army's arrogance dropped greatly!
Zhang Shouzhong, before following Han Qing, had been training in the Denglai Navy for many years and knew the importance of collecting battle results.
While Zhang Fan led his brothers to launch a counterattack against the Liao army, he sent a few fine sailors ashore to collect Xiao Tienu's body, armor and flags from the northern Liao infantry army in one place as much as possible.
Sent his own ship.
Although the body was broken into seven or eight pieces, and was blackened by the smoke produced by the explosion of gunpowder. But after scrubbing, Xiao Tienu's face could basically be recognized. However, the Liao Kingdom was very hierarchical, and the descendants of the Xiao family
The armor is very different from ordinary armor.
After the battle results and evidence were brought back to Yucheng by Zhang Shouzhong, they immediately caused a sensation on the East and West Roads of Beijing.
Not only did Dante Wei and Wang Kui, the commander of the Western Route, write poems one after another to celebrate, but even Li Jilong, who was in charge of the entire Yellow River defense line in Chanzhou, sent people to sail down the river to verify the authenticity of the battle results and provide supplements to Han Qing.
After issuing a warrant, the Denglai navy can act at ease at all crossings on both sides of the Yellow River from Baima Ferry to the east!
At this time, the river patrol fleet that Han Qing hastily organized finally became famous. No matter where he went to fight, he no longer had to worry about crossing the border. Afterwards, he was not afraid of any clear streamers jumping out to find faults.
However, Han Qing's name soon resounded on both sides of the Yellow River. It was absolutely impossible not to attract the enemy's attention.
Han Qing himself did not take the results of the battle seriously.
There are still a lot of naval generals captured by him in Goryeo who are being held in Dengzhou, waiting for the eight great families of Goryeo to redeem him. The head of Cui Rong, the commander of the Goryeo squadron, has just been sent to Bianliang by him.
how long.
A mere military commander from the northern part of the Liao Kingdom, Xiang Wen, was only a thousand-man general, his position was not as high as Cui Rong's, and he really had nothing to show off.
As for the nephew of the Xiao family, no matter how noble he is, can he still be as noble as Li Deming, the king of Xia? Even Li Deming's head was cut off by his men, so how could he care about Xiao Tienu?
However, the Khitan side could not accept that Xiao Tienu died at the hands of a local army from the Song Dynasty. It was even more unacceptable that two plans to cross the river were thwarted by the same army.
The water village at Yucheng Ferry and Han Qing himself quickly became a thorn in the side of the northern privy minister Yelu Longxing.
On the third day of July, the Khitan Northern Court Privy Councilor Yelu Longxing captured Mingzhou. He gave up the attack on Chanzhou and turned eastward. Together with Yelu Keli, the commander of the Ma Army, they captured Gaotang and were across the river from the water village of Yucheng.
