In the Nanjing Imperial Palace of Xijin Prefecture, Yelu Zongzhen was in a very bad mood at this time.
Because bad news comes one after another.
"Report, a large number of Song army scouts appeared outside Xijin Prefecture. Our scouts were driven away and could not pass."
"Report, the Song army has surrounded Liangxiang, and messengers in the city cannot enter or leave."
"Report, the Song army is bombarding Liangxiang City!"
Two or three days after the rain stopped, the Song army launched a major counterattack.
When it rained and was dark, the combat effectiveness of the Song army's firearms decreased significantly and their power was much smaller.
Just like in the Battle of Humen in 1841, because of the rain, the British could only maintain a 50% firing rate of their guns, and because of the protective devices on their artillery, the firing rate was about 60%, which seriously reduced their combat effectiveness.
However, even so, the corrupt and incompetent Qing government was defeated by the British and signed the humiliating Treaty of Chuanbi and the subsequent Treaty of Nanjing.
So although firearms were indeed affected by the rain, the organized firearms army was still very powerful.
The only problem now is that the Liao Kingdom is not as destitute as the Qing government in 1841. At this time, the Liao Kingdom is in a period of decline, but a large number of elite troops left by Emperor Shengzong of Liao are still there. They are not like the Qing army in the late Qing Dynasty, which will fall apart at the first touch.
Under such circumstances, the Liao army fought hard and desperately. In addition, the Liao army also had artillery, which caused considerable trouble to the Song army during the night battle, so that Fan Zhongyan was somewhat passive in the fight.
But once the storm stopped and the sky cleared, things took a turn for the worse. The Liao army was not completely defeated, but they were badly beaten and fled in all directions, running back to the city.
The Song army began to advance on a large scale, increasing in number layer by layer. More than 100,000 troops surrounded Liangxiang, Yuhe, Wanping and other places and began civil engineering work.
Over 100,000 Song troops seemed to have become the reincarnation of the innate holy body of earth and wood overnight. They surrounded the area around Liangxiang, facing Yuhe and Wanping, and dug the earth frantically in three layers inside and outside. They almost dug a tunnel to Yelu Zongzhen's palace.
But it has to be admitted that this tactic of the Song army was indeed very effective.
Digging trenches could effectively prevent the Liao army's horse charges and limit their mobility.
At the same time, it can also serve as a shelter to reduce casualties from artillery fire, allowing the Song army to avoid artillery bombardment from Liangxiang City when they surrounded Liangxiang.
"Your Majesty, this is not a solution."
In the palace, at this time, Yelu Zongzhen was accompanied by only his younger brother Yelu Chongyuan, Prince of Wu Yelu Renxian, Prince of Han Zhang Jian, Liu Liufu, the co-minister of the Secretariat, and Xiao Ying, the envoy of the Southern Court.
The rest, including Xiao Hui, Xiao Xiaoyou, Xiao Xiaomu, Yelu Zongyuan, Yelu Begut, Yelu Tulukun and others, were leading troops outside and scattered across Xijin Prefecture to deal with the Song army.
The current situation between Song and Liao is naturally not that simple. In addition to several county towns around Xijin Prefecture, a large number of Song and Liao troops are still fighting and confronting each other in Luxian, Guoyin, Xianghe, Wuqing and other places. The situation is intertwined and the two sides are fighting back and forth.
But the overall situation was still that of the Song attacking and the Liao defending. After the rainy season, the Liao army had almost no resistance in open-field encounters. Compared with firearms, the cold weapons were even worse than the Qing army's fight against the British. At least the Qing army still had some matchlock guns that could be used.
So now the Liao army can be said to be retreating step by step. After many night operations were easily resolved by Fan Zhongyan, it has become difficult for them to organize an effective offensive against the Song army. For a time, they were quite at a loss.
Liu Liufu, now Prime Minister of the Northern Court, advised Yelu Zongzhen, "We launched numerous attacks during the heavy rains, but were always stopped by Fan Zhongyan. Now that the enemy is at the gates, Liangxiang will likely not hold out for much longer. The Song army will surely continue to erode our territory. Continuing this depletion will be detrimental to our army."
Yelu Zongzhen asked, "What do you think Prime Minister Liu should do?"
"Forehead"
Liu Liufu hesitated for a moment before saying, "How about negotiating peace with the State of Song?"
Peace talks?
Upon hearing Liu Liufu's words, Yelu Zongzhen frowned.
He suffered two losses in this battle. First, he did not expect that the Song army's firearms would be iterated so quickly. The firing rate and power were much worse before, but now they have been improved so much.
Secondly, they did not expect that Fan Zhongyan's tortoise tactics combined with muskets would be so powerful. They were like facing a thorny turtle.
And this turtle is not an ordinary turtle, but the Black Tortoise God Turtle. If you try to fight it, not only will you be defeated, but you will also be shot with thorns, and it may even bite you back and tear off a piece of your flesh.
How can this be done?
But if you just say you can't win, it will obviously hurt morale.
Moreover, it was always the Song Dynasty that took the initiative to request peace talks with them. Even last time, the two sides signed an equal treaty.
This time, he took the initiative to ask for peace talks when he was in a difficult situation. What if the State of Song made unreasonable demands?
And most importantly, Yelu Zongzhen did not feel that he had fallen into a desperate situation where he was bound to fail.
The Liao Kingdom is currently carrying out a general mobilization. In addition to the 200,000 to 300,000 troops in Nanjing, he has already subdued the Bohai, Jurchen, Shiwei and other northeastern tribes in Tokyo.
The Mongolian tribes on the grasslands north and south of the desert had already been recruited and were now ordered to send out powerful warriors to fight with the Liao people.
If the entire country is mobilized, Yelu Zongzhen is confident that he can at least mobilize 500,000 to 600,000 troops.
The reason why he had this confidence was not only because the Liao Kingdom had gained a lot of benefits from trade with the Song people in the short period of seven or eight years, which improved its national strength, but also because the various tribes under the Liao Kingdom were nomadic or fishing and hunting peoples.
The characteristic of these ethnic groups is that everyone is a soldier.
To be more extreme, it is not impossible that the Liao Kingdom, with a population of more than nine million, would have more than one million soldiers.
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