Great Song Super Scholar

Chapter 738
Early the next morning, under the escort of three thousand cavalry, Fan Ning left the capital for Laizhou.

Laizhou is currently the naval base of the Great Song Dynasty. Thousands of warships and tens of thousands of naval troops are stationed here. Yin Qi's son Miao Ji became an official.

At present, the commander of the navy is taken over by Mao Nanwu, the vice commander of the navy. Mao Nanwu is about 40 years old, has dark skin, a strong and burly physique, and has rich experience in the navy.

He was originally the deputy commander of the Quanzhou Navy, followed Fan Ning to open up Southeast Asia, and led dozens of warships to defeat the Sanfo Qi Kingdom Navy. Established the Dasong Water Army Base, led the Shenmi Island Water Army to sink hundreds of warships from the Liao Army, made many military exploits, and was promoted to the Deputy Commander of the Water Army the year before last. After Miao Shunli committed suicide and died for the country, Mao Nanwu officially took over the Navy All work together.

This morning, Mao Nanwu received news that Generalissimo Fan Ning had arrived in Laizhou, less than twenty miles away from the navy base.

Mao Nanwu hurriedly led dozens of generals out of the camp to welcome the marshal.

Not long after, a large group of cavalry appeared in the distance, with banners waving in a magnificent manner, and a big "Fan" was embroidered on a red flag.

After a while, a group of cavalry slowly approached, and the official in purple robes and gold crowns was none other than Marshal Zhengbei and King Fanning of Chu.

Mao Nanwu hurriedly led the generals to kneel down on one knee, cupped their fists and said, "Humble Mao Nanwu, welcome His Royal Highness King Chu!"

Fan Ning got off his horse, helped Mao Nanwu up, and asked the generals to stand up again. He said with a smile, "General Mao, generals, we haven't seen each other for a long time. I am very pleased to see that you are all serving the country."

Mao Nanwu was originally the deputy commander of Quanzhou, a small military officer from the sixth rank, and was promoted step by step by Fan Ning's unique insight. , how could he not be grateful to Fan Ning?

Not only him, but more than half of the other navy generals were promoted by Fan Ning during the Pingxixia War.

Seeing Fan Ning at this time, Mao Nanwu felt extremely excited, and his voice was a little choked up, "It's the great Song Dynasty's luck to lead the army again, and the Navy's luck too!"

Fan Ning patted him on the shoulder and said with a smile: "Victory is achieved by you. It is the luck of Song Dynasty and the navy to have you here!"

Mao Nanwu still wanted to say more, but Fan Ning said with a smile: "If you have anything to say, let's go to the navy camp and talk about it!"

"Yes! Yes! Yes! Your Highness, please enter the camp with the humble officer."

Dozens of generals surrounded Fan Ning like stars holding the moon and entered the navy camp.

The naval camp is divided into two parts: sea and land. The land camp is slightly smaller, covering an area of ​​just over a hundred hectares, with thousands of tents and 10,000 soldiers stationed there. However, the sea base is extremely vast, covering thousands of hectares of sea surface. , laid down [-]+ wooden stakes, besieged an extremely huge water army camp, and thousands of warships, large and small, were moored in the water camp.

There is no ice in the south of the Bohai Sea. The waves gently beat against the revetment, and thousands of ships, large and small, undulate slightly on the sea.

Fan Ning stared at the sea for a while and asked, "What happened to the Liaohe defeat?"

"Your Highness, please follow me to the main tent of the Chinese Army, where there will be a detailed sand table battle."

Fan Ning nodded and followed Mao Nanwu to the main tent of the Chinese Army.

Mao Nanwu pointed to a sand table and said: "The fiasco in Liaohe was the most painful defeat since the establishment of the Song Dynasty navy. I specially made a sand table to remember the lesson."

Fan Ning stepped forward and saw that the sand table was about one foot long and wide, including the northern part of the Bohai Sea, Liaoyang Mansion, Liaohe River and the banks of the Liaohe River. The composition was relatively simple.

The Liaohe River is full of models of warships and leather rafts. The warships are painted red to indicate that they are burned. The same goes for the leather rafts and the river water. It vividly outlines a water battle that has fallen into the trap of a sea of ​​fire.

Fan Ning frowned and asked, "Isn't there a scout on the shore?"

"At the beginning there were, but the Liao army kept appearing on the shore, and the scouts could no longer go deep."

"Even the scouts can't go deep, and the fleet dares to go deep into the hinterland?"

Fan Ning's tone was obviously dissatisfied. This was a serious violation of the rules of water warfare. Miao Shunli had rich experience. Fan Ning didn't believe it. He didn't even understand this.

Mao Nanwu said helplessly: "We also know that it is dangerous for a lonely army to go deep, but the military order stipulates that we are required to join the [-] troops in Liaoyang Prefecture. They are marching lightly and only brought some dry food. We must cooperate with the [-] troops. action."

After a pause, Mao Nanwu explained again: "We also realized that this military order is a bit dangerous, so we specially put important weapons such as fine steel ballistas and iron fire mines at the back, and put food, grass and siege equipment at the front. , Our decision was very correct, and we kept the strategic materials such as the fine steel ballistas and iron fire mines from falling into the hands of the Liao people."

Fan Ning took a few steps with his hands behind his back and asked, "The military order you are talking about is the military order of Mr. Han, or the order of the court?"

Mao Wunan said in a low voice for a while: "Actually, it is a joint military order from the Emperor and the Privy Council."

Fan Ning sighed slightly. This was the real reason for the disastrous defeat of the Song Army. It came from the court's blind command, but it was also Han Jiang's responsibility. As the coach, he did not withstand the pressure of the court.

In the final analysis, Han Jiang's prestige is slightly low, and he is not confident enough. Zhao Xu himself is aware of this, so he specifically specified four words in the purpose, 'full responsibility'. It is estimated that Han Jiang will not be able to obtain the greatest command power .

"Now tell me, how many warships and soldiers have the navy lost?"

"A total of 170 warships were burned, 33 warships with ten thousand stones, 97 warships with five thousand stones, and the others were all three thousand stone warships. More than [-] soldiers died in battle, and some of them may have been captured. , but we are all temporarily included in the death list, even if they escape the sea of ​​fire, I am afraid it will be difficult to escape the massacre of the cavalry on the shore."

Fan Ning's heart is very heavy. This is really the heaviest loss for the establishment of the Great Song Navy.

"How is the morale of the army now?"

"It was relatively low at the beginning, but after training for a period of time, it gradually recovered. Especially when I heard that His Highness will be the Grand Marshal, the morale has completely recovered."

Fan Ning immediately said: "Assemble the whole army, I want to say a few words to everyone!"

Mao Wunan was overjoyed, he was looking forward to the commander-in-chief giving lectures to the whole army to boost the morale of the army.

'Boom!Boom!Boom! '

The assembled battle drums sounded, and the [-] sailors in the barracks assembled from all directions on the martial arts arena. A high platform had been set up on the martial arts arena. It was the beginning of February, and the sea breeze was already somewhat warm.

The beating of the drums stopped, and all the [-] soldiers had assembled. At this time, Fan Ning appeared on the high platform, and the [-] soldiers were full of surprises and cheered excitedly.

Fan Ning waved his hand with a smile, motioning for everyone to be quiet, the martial arts field quickly quieted down, and [-] pairs of eyes were fixed on the coach Fan Ning.

Fan Ning said in a loud voice: "Everyone is right, I am now serving as Marshal of Zhengbei University again, and I will lead everyone to crusade against the Liao Kingdom."

The atmosphere in the army was extremely enthusiastic, and the soldiers raised their arms and shouted again.

Fan Ning was also infected by the enthusiasm of the soldiers. He waved his hand again, and the soldiers quickly fell silent.

"Although we suffered a disastrous defeat a few months ago, many brothers were killed and wounded, and many warships were destroyed, but our navy did not suffer any injuries. We just fell down once while running, got up and continued running That's it, and after this setback, our navy will run faster and become stronger, because our navy is the most powerful army in the world, and it has made great achievements in destroying Xixia, and the same is true in the battle of destroying Liao It will go down in the history books!"

In the middle of March in the second year of Xining, everything recovered, the ice and snow melted, and the ice on the river disappeared without a trace. Two hundred Song Army Wanshi warships set off from Shenmi Island arrived on the river outside Baozhou City at the mouth of the Yalu River. Baozhou City was built by the river, and the city gate was only a few dozen steps away from the river.

The Wanshi warship of the Song Army is like a giant condescending. Thirty steel ballistas on the warship fired iron fire thunders into the city at the same time. The iron fire thunders exploded in the city. The people fled in panic, and after half of the three thousand defenders were killed, they also gave up Baozhou.

At the same time, Xuanzhou, which was only a dozen miles away from Baozhou, was also attacked by the Song army's navy from a long distance. Fire arrows rained down on the sky and covered the sky. A raging fire ignited in the city, and the entire Xuanzhou city was engulfed in fire.

Three days later, the Song army occupied Baozhou and Xuanzhou, which opened the prelude to attacking Dongdong Road in Liao Kingdom from the east.

(End of this chapter)