"Kid, this is the nth batch of Liao people."
A middle-aged soldier on the top of the city wall was whispering to a young soldier next to him.
The young soldier whispered, "Second Uncle, from the day before yesterday to today, there have been four batches, no less than 20,000."
"It's a pity that the war has suddenly broken out and the borders and seas are blocked. No one is allowed to enter or leave. Otherwise, we could have spread the news."
"How about I go to the agreed place tonight?"
"Forget it. If the people above find out that you've left your post again without permission, they'll probably be suspicious of you."
The middle-aged soldier denied it.
The Imperial City Bureau has certainly not been idle over the years.
Because the Song and Liao dynasties had fully opened up trade in the previous years, business on both sides flourished rapidly, and many Liao and Song people came to each other's borders to do business.
But naturally, there were also many spies on both sides who disguised their identities and went to the enemy country in the name of trade, but in fact acted as traitors.
The Liao people had many spies, and the Song Dynasty had no fewer spies.
For example, these two soldiers from the neighboring navy were developed from the commander of the Imperial City Division of a smuggling ship.
In order to pay less taxes, there must have been many smuggling ships in the border trade between Song and Liao.
The Liao Kingdom welcomed them very much because the sulfur smuggled from Japan was much cheaper than that sold by Song Dynasty merchants through orthodox channels.
Pingzhou was the place with the most smuggling ships. After the Song Dynasty cracked down on smuggling ships, border cities such as Guangning and Yingzhou were even very prosperous for a time because of smugglers, with many prostitutes, restaurants, taverns and shops.
It’s just that in the past two years, the Song Dynasty has been very aggressive in cracking down on smuggling ships, and merchants have a very keen sense of smell.
In August, the Liao Kingdom invaded Goryeo from the south. In September, the Song army had already begun to prepare for war. At the end of September, the Song court ordered the cessation of trade between the Song-Liao and Song-Xia markets. Many people speculated that war was about to break out again, so the border became depressed again.
The two soldiers' superiors had often traveled between Cangzhou in Song and Pingzhou in Liao, both for business and espionage. But now they were unable to leave and bring back any intelligence.
The two men were discussing in a low voice when they suddenly heard various shouts in the distance and they quickly turned their heads.
They saw that the soldiers near the east city wall seemed to be quite agitated, and many people gathered there out of curiosity. Two people ran to the east city wall and looked in the direction pointed by the soldiers who were shouting on the wall.
Then I saw a small black dot appear on the sea level in the distance, I don’t know when it appeared.
Is it a smuggling ship?
This was the first thought that came to the minds of the two Song officials.
Unexpectedly, when the war was about to break out, there were still fearless smuggling ships coming. I just don’t know whether they were their superiors or other smuggling ships.
"Great! Another fleet of Song merchants is coming. I've been so bored these days."
"I have to buy some wine. The wines of the Song Dynasty are very good, especially the strong liquor called Shaochun. I heard it was brewed in Bashu during the Tang Dynasty. It makes your whole body hot after drinking it. Drinking this wine warms you up in winter."
"Not only that, I heard their emperor also made a lot of wine. Alas, the wine of the Song people is good, but it's too expensive."
"Since we're going to have a war anyway, we might as well just rob them."
"Are you crazy to say you're robbing them? Once you rob them, no more ships will come. Only during wartime will you treat them like gods."
The soldiers of the neighboring navy inside and outside the city were talking about it. Many of them felt their pockets and stared at the black spot in the distance.
Some impatient officers had even gone down to the city, opened the south gate, and ran to the port to wait.
After all, a strong liquor called Shaochun has appeared in Sichuan since the Tang Dynasty.
Afterwards, Zhao Zhen established a market and, through various methods, produced many types of liquor, including sorghum liquor, distilled liquor, and wheat liquor, which were sold well overseas for a time.
Especially now that it is winter, drinking some strong liquor is the most comfortable time, so the Liao people in the north like the wine from the Song Dynasty very much.
There were not many defenders in Guangning City, only a few hundred people, and many of them were staring at the sea in the distance.
Not only Guangning City, but also Yuguan, a few kilometers away from Guangning, has a city, but it is not as big as Guangning City. It was built since the Tang Dynasty and has a city wall about three miles long from north to south.
At this moment, after the defenders of Yuguan were relieved about the latest batch of Liao troops entering the pass, they also saw the black spots on the sea level in the south. Many people were addicted to alcohol and also left their posts and went to the seaside pier to wait.
At one time, nearly a thousand Liao people had gathered in the large area from Shanhaiguan to Qinhuangdao in the rear, at the seaside docks and ports, anxiously waiting for the arrival of the ships.
Soon the ships were getting closer and closer, from the initial one black dot, slowly becoming two, three, four...
Dozens of ships of various sizes slowly appeared on the sea surface.
At first, the Liao soldiers were full of excitement.
As the number of boats increased, they began to realize something was wrong, and the crowd waiting for drinks became restless.
"Are those Song merchant ships? When did the Song have such a large fleet?"
"Let alone black market traders, even the Song Dynasty's official merchant ships wouldn't have that many."
"What the hell are they?"
"Could it be?"
An idea quickly popped up in everyone's mind.
Could these ships be?
"Enemy attack!"
Almost at the same time when the Liao soldiers on the coast were getting restless, the officers defending Guangning City issued sharp shouts and blew horns at the same time.
The city's high vantage point allows for far-reaching views, and the city-guarding officer had good eyesight. When the ship approached a distance of eight or nine miles from them, although he could not see clearly, he clearly saw that the red flag of the Song Dynasty was flying on the enemy's ship!
(End of this chapter)
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