Great Song Super Scholar

Chapter 639
The [-] Xixia army arrived at the military city of Hue in a mighty manner. This military city, which is about a hundred miles away from Hetao, was also pulled out by the Song army after the Weifu army in Hetao was wiped out. More than [-] soldiers died. Those who died and those who fled fled, the food and grass in the city were burned, and the military city was also razed to the ground, leaving only a little ruined walls.

General Wang Mengye looked at this military city with a livid face. In the impression of all the Xixia Army, they burned the city of the Song Dynasty and the camp of the Song Army. Today, many soldiers saw the tragic appearance of their own military city for the first time. , There was an indescribable uneasiness in my heart.

"Clean up this place!"

Wang Mengxuan ordered the left and right to clean up the abandoned city, and the army continued to march north.

At noon the next day, the [-] troops of the former army and the central army arrived at the entrance of Hetao first, and the beacon smoke from the Song army sentry tower in the distance shot straight into the sky.

Wang Menghe snorted heavily, pointed his horsewhip at the beacon, "Destroy it!"

Two thousand soldiers immediately rushed to the mountains in the distance, and the Song Army's beacon was on the mountains.

The army crossed the Yellow River, continued to speed up, and killed in the direction of Wuyuan City in the Song Dynasty.

They don't care about the baggage fleet behind them. The baggage fleet has 2 guards from the rear army, and it is generally a day or two later than the front army and the middle army.

But Wang Mengye never expected that after they crossed the river and marched for less than fifty miles, a fleet of fifty steamships appeared at the mouth of the river, turned around and sailed south of the Yellow River.

The fleet consisting of hundreds of giant leather rafts is more than [-] miles long, and thousands of trackers pull the leather rafts full of baggage and travel slowly.

Although it is traveling along the river, the Yellow River is very gentle. Without the help of the trackers, the speed will be very slow. Another important role of the trackers is to control the boats and prevent the rafts from getting out of control on the Yellow River. Although the water flow is slow, there are still many boats on the Yellow River. The undercurrent vortex is easy to cause the raft to overturn when it encounters the undercurrent.

On the shore, [-] Xixia troops rode on horseback, trying to keep pace with the raft.

At this time, there was a roar from the Yellow River, and a strange ship appeared in the sight of Xixia soldiers. Two huge chimneys were erected on the ship, black smoke was rising from the chimneys, and two large paddle wheels rolled at the stern, driving the ship forward. .

"Wait a minute! It seems to be a ship from the Liao Kingdom."

The soldiers found that the flag hanging on the leading ship was the wolf-headed flag of the Liao Kingdom, which made them very surprised. How could the ships of the Liao Kingdom appear here, something they had never heard of.

But this was just a small blindfold, and the rear commander immediately came to his senses and shouted: "All rafts dock!"

The raft slowly moved closer to the shore, but it couldn’t pull over completely. This was not a pier, and most of the riverside along the shore was covered with rocks. The edges of the stones were sharp, and the bottom of the raft was easily scratched.

But even if the raft is close to the shore, it does not mean safety, it just enters the protection range of the [-] rear army.

The flag on the ship had been changed to the Yellow Dragon Flag of the Song Army, and a five thousand shi Song Army steamboat rushed towards the leather raft of the Xixia Kingdom.

The rear commander immediately shouted: "Fire the arrows!"

Five thousand Xixia soldiers rushed to the river to release arrows, and the arrows rained down on the steamboat more than [-] feet away. Full of haystacks.

But the first steamboat had already approached the giant leather raft, and the Xixia army's arrows stopped immediately. If they shot down like this, it was not the Song army ship that was injured, but their own leather raft.

When the steamboat was about five or six feet away from the raft, several porcelain bottles of fire mines were thrown into the raft, and there were continuous explosions in the raft, and the dense iron and porcelain pieces shot through the thin sheepskin immediately. , This is also the biggest weakness of the sheepskin raft. It is afraid of fire and sharp objects, and the thin sheepskin is easily pierced and discouraged.

"Boom!" The first giant sheepskin raft lost its balance, and the thousands of stones of grain it carried poured out and turned into the Yellow River.

The steamboat didn't stop, and continued to drive south along the outer edge of the raft. Every time it got close to a raft, five or six porcelain fire mines were thrown into it, and it exploded instantly. The giant raft that began to deflate rapidly would not have any Fortunately, the leather raft can carry goods only by its balance. Once it loses balance, the leather raft fully loaded with luggage will quickly tip over.

The rear army commander on the bank jumped his feet anxiously, and shouted sharply: "The first army goes into the water and stops the enemy army!"

More than a thousand small leather rafts were thrown into the Yellow River. Soldiers boarded the rafts one after another. There were four men on each raft, two for rowing and two for fighting. Dozens of steam engine boats came from behind, and some of the Song soldiers on board were shooting arrows , and some threw porcelain bottles of fire and thunder.

The leather raft is too small in front of the big ship of five thousand shi. The huge warship is like ants shaking the pillar to the leather raft, which makes them helpless. Many soldiers want to destroy the two sides of the big ship. The waves were too big for the rafts to get close to, and the soldiers on board would not give them any chance of damage.

More than 1000 rafts were constantly being hit and sunk, and the rafts full of supplies began to catch fire. The soldiers launched an attack with gunpowder arrows. After the burning gunpowder arrows shot through the rafts, they burned directly inside. Soon, thick smoke billowed on the river and flames raged to the sky. Hundreds of rafts were powerless to resist, and could only be burned to the ground. The flames gradually disappeared when they sank into the Yellow River.

Three months of food and military supplies for 5000 soldiers disappeared from the Yellow River in just one hour. At the same time, more than [-] soldiers of the rear army disappeared on the Yellow River. He didn't know whether he would continue to go north or withdraw to Xingqing Mansion, and he didn't know how he should explain to the coach.

In desperation, he had no choice but to send people to the north quickly to report to the coach Wang Meng. At the same time, he also sent people back to Xingqing Mansion to ask for emergency support. The [-] soldiers and [-] to [-] civilians had no food, and they returned to Xingqing by themselves. It is difficult for Qing Mansion, let alone continue to go north.

Dozens of steamships have turned around and headed north. Their next step is to block the Yellow River and completely cut off the retreat of the main force of the Xixia Army.

Several soldiers sent by Li Xinliang to report the military situation to Wangmeng were intercepted by the patrols of the Song army on the Yellow River when they were crossing the Yellow River. Three of them were killed in battle, and one soldier was captured alive.

The [-] army led by Wang Mengye arrived in Wuyuan City two days later, but the army had no tents, so they could only rest on the ground in the wilderness and eat some dry food they carried with them.

They usually carry dry food for two to three days, and then wait for the supplies and supplies from the rear army to arrive. Generally, the Xixia army will also consider the enemy's surprise attack on the supplies, so they will arrange heavy guards. Twenty thousand cavalry are enough to protect the supplies.

But the Xixia people forgot one thing. Although it is difficult for the ships of the Song Army to come from the south, the Yellow River, which is about 1000 miles from Lanzhou to Mingsha County, cannot be sailed by boats, but only on rafts, but the ships of the Song Army can come from the north. , They neglected this point, even a [-] heavy army could not protect the baggage in the Yellow River.

On the top of the city, Fan Ning looked coldly at the boundless soldiers below the city. Are they still waiting for supplies and siege weapons?

Yang Wenguang sighed: "The Xixia people are really brainless. They still don't understand the strategic plan of the Song army. They don't know how the Song army reversed and defeated the Liao army. They don't care about the Song army's navy at all. How strong is it?"

Fan Ning said indifferently: "The generals in Xixia who are really good at fighting are all killed and demoted by the Liang Group, and her brothers and domestic favorites are in charge of the power. For example, the coach in front of me is called Wang Mengye, who looks like A good-looking talent, very effective in bed, Empress Dowager Liang asked him to be the commander of the Northern Expedition, wanting him to take this opportunity to establish prestige, but look at the way he leads troops, who does the old general think he is?"

"A complete idiot who doesn't understand military affairs!"

Yang Wenguang blurted out a curse, and said to Fan Ning: "I can still understand the previous battle. Cui Shancheng made a mistake in his judgment and didn't bring too much food. He wanted to fight a surprise battle, so he rushed all night to Wuyuan City. A battle of 10 people! What does this mean? It will take at least a few months to fight. You have to step by step, build a logistics center first, and then find out the details of the enemy army, and then the army can go north. Hold on tight.

But what does he look like now, the food and supplies are left behind, and he is like a scout, first to inquire about the Song Army's intelligence, but how can there be 8 scouts in the world?Empress Dowager Liang's use of such an idiot as the coach will ruin Xixia's national fortune sooner or later. "

Fan Ning nodded and said with a smile: "The old general's judgment is completely correct, but what I'm more interested in is that it seems that the three thousand iron kites of the Xixia people are also among them. Can we take this opportunity to bury them in water together?"

(End of this chapter)