It’s all in the longevity!

"Woooo ...

The desolate horn resounded among several nearby cities such as Yingzhou, Guangning, and Yuguan.

The three cities are basically located in the northeast of Changli County, Hebei Province in later generations, and are only more than 20 kilometers apart from Qinhuangdao City and Shanhaiguan area.

But the soldiers stationed in the city saw the ships on the sea level in the distance, slowly approaching the shore like ghosts.

The most frightened were the soldiers at Yuguan, because when they were still ten miles away from the shore, the main force of those ships came straight towards the Yushui River, as if they were going to sail directly into the Yushui River.

The rest of the ships were divided into two groups and headed towards Yingzhou and Guangning.

Yingzhou is actually not by the sea. It is about three or four kilometers away from the coastline. It is almost in the northeast of Changli County in later generations, and is close to Beidaihe, a famous tourist destination in later generations.

At this moment, as the Song Dynasty ships were getting closer, the defenders in the direction of Yuguan were in chaos. Some ran from the shore to the city, some stood there stupidly, and some even saw the chaos around them and secretly ran away.

Many of the soldiers in the rear of Xijin Prefecture of the Liao Dynasty were conscripted Han soldiers. According to the "Khitan Official Ceremonies", the Liao Dynasty "had Han soldiers in every state."

At that time, the core army of the Liao ruling class was still mainly composed of the Khitan Pi Shi Army, with tribes ruled by the Bohai, Jurchen, and Mongols as the vanguard. The Han people in the Sixteen Prefectures of Yanyun only served as local rural troops, which were of the same nature as the Xiang Army of the Song Dynasty.

Therefore, these soldiers were not very loyal. Except for the fact that they recovered the Sixteen Prefectures of Yanyun during the Song Dynasty and the local Han people were afraid of the Song Dynasty's exorbitant taxes and then rose up to resist the Song Dynasty, they basically had no combat effectiveness.

After all, you only earn a few hundred copper coins a month, why bother risking your life?

Under these circumstances, the entire Yuguan area was in chaos: Liao officers were shouting, Han soldiers were yelling, and some, who were not sure whether they were Liao or Han, would glance around and then sneak away.

On the Fu ship, the flagship of the Pinghai navy, Di Qing observed the enemy situation through a telescope. Seeing the Liao army in a panic on the distant shore, he said, "Let's go ashore and charge."

"Master Di, I have a good idea."

Hu Yanshouyong said.

"oh?"

Di Qing asked, "What's the idea?"

"We secretly sent people to Liao to engage in illegal business, but in reality, we were observing the terrain. We had already figured out their city defenses and topography."

Huyan Shouyong pointed in the direction of Yuguan Pass in the distance and said, "There's a river over there called the Yushui River. If we go up the river and line up our ships in the middle of it, we can cut off the only route between Liao's Dongjing and Nanjing."

"There's this matter?"

Di Qing became interested and looked in the direction Hu Yanshou pointed. After a moment's thought, he said, "Have you checked the reefs over there to see if there are any hidden reefs? Also, since it's winter now, is there enough water in the river to prevent the boats from moving forward?"

Hu Yanshouyong smiled and said, "Don't worry, General Di. We have been scouting for several years and are familiar with the presence of reefs and the river conditions."

"Well, then, let's do as you wish."

Di Qing nodded.

He originally planned to approach the shore first, bombard the city with artillery, and capture the three important city passes of Yingzhou, Guangning, and Yuguan.

This cut off the connection between the two southeastern capitals of the Liao Kingdom, and directly led to the main force of the Liao Kingdom being intercepted in Tokyo Liaoyang Prefecture.

But doing so is obviously inappropriate.

Because they needed to transport the artillery on the ship to the city, the back and forth would inevitably give the enemy an opportunity to take advantage, and they might even find a chance to defeat them.

In addition, Yumen Pass is not the kind of natural pass that can be blocked by one man. It is surrounded by the Bohai Sea to the south and the Yanshan Mountains to the north, with a smooth road about 20 to 30 miles long from north to south in the middle.

The city of Yuguan is located in the middle of the terrain. Without the support of the high terrain, the artillery can only shoot about two kilometers at most and cannot cover the entire Yuguan Pass.

But the situation would be different if the boats were sailed to the Yuli River. The boats could patrol back and forth, controlling the entire Yumen Pass from north to south, and no Liao army would be able to pass.

So this is really a good idea.

The boats were heading towards the river bank at full speed, and at this time the defenders in various places finally came to their senses.

Yingzhou and Yuguan could only watch. They were too far away from the coast and the artillery on the city walls were useless. Guangning, on the other hand, hurriedly started firing artillery.

"Bang bang bang bang!"

Then they saw flames and smoke on the top of the city wall. More than ten shells drew a brilliant arc in the air, like the falling sun, and attacked the Song army's fleet violently.

However, although the Liao artillerymen were slightly more skilled than the poorly trained Xixia artillerymen, they were not actually that much better.

After all, the excellent artillery crew members have been transferred to the front line, and many of the gunners in the rear have not received much training. At most, they know how to fire, and their accuracy and skills are far from enough.

The most important thing is that although there are targets on the ocean, it is often easy to miss even in close combat. This is why in many naval battles before and after World War I, many ironclad ships had to get close to enemy ships to fire.

Therefore, although the dozen or so cannons on the city wall of Guangning seemed to be firing fiercely, they were actually tens of thousands of miles away from the fleet and all of them were fired into the sea. The Song Dynasty fleet did not suffer any losses at all.

However, although no ship in the fleet was hit by artillery fire, the sudden artillery fire still frightened many warships.

Even though the shells were far away and even though they were safe and sound, some of the oarsmen and wheelmen in the fleet stopped working unconsciously, listening to the noises outside in fear and suspicion, fearing that artillery fire would hit the ship.

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