The cold rain outside became heavier and drifted on people. It seemed that the cold air was constantly drilling into the flesh as it was sticky and wet. Duan Tianshui had to order the river work to stop.

This river work cannot start from the upstream, and must start from the downstream. However, because there are many tributaries along the way, the small tributaries will directly close them first, while the large tributaries will not work. Therefore, starting from the downstream, excavation will be carried out in stages.

After digging, with the help of low tide, a gap was placed on the protective berth deliberately left on the periphery, and then with the help of high tide, the remaining protective berth was constantly washed away, and the soil carried the sea with the tide. After three or four years, it would not hinder the navigation.

But it is not that simple. First of all, its scale has nothing to do with navigation. Now the largest sea ship is 2,000 tons. Wang Judu is ambitious to develop larger sea ships, but the effect is never ideal. Therefore, the requirements for the width and depth of this canal are not so strict. At most, some thoughts must be taken when building the dock. The main thing is to share water conservancy. Huating's local water flow is very amazing. Moreover, it also has to share the Taihu water system and a larger river tide than later generations, so it must be wide enough and deep enough.

However, the larger the scale, the higher the cost, so the first level is the control of this scale.

The second is the tributaries. The southeast water system is different from the northern water system. It often looks like a small river or even a small ditch, with a depth of more than ten meters and a large ship that sails hundreds of tons!

It turned out that all tributaries either flock to the Wusong River, and those tributaries were all on the west side of this canal. The tributaries involving the canal flow eastward into the sea. After the completion of the canal, the opening and opening of the canal, which also means that the flow direction of these tributaries has been completely changed. Some of the tributaries in Pudong continue to inject into the sea, but some of the tributaries in Puxi must be injected into this canal, and at the same time they will be affected by river tides and will be affected by flood water from Taihu Lake in the future. Then the hydrological characteristics of each tributary are almost completely changed.

So we have to investigate, rebuild and build some related steep gates

In order not to make mistakes, Duan Tianshui came to Huating for more than seven months and spent almost all his time on river engineering. He didn't even know how many streets there were in Huating County.

Although there were some minor troubles in the middle, it was not a big mistake.

Duan Tianshui was wearing a straw raincoat and checked everywhere. A handful of cold rain had wet many migrant workers' bodies. He had to send someone to make ginger soup and dispense it for the people to drink in order to get rid of the cold. In short, because he was a clerk and was responsible for such a big project, he was very careful in his work and avoided the problem and was found to be a handle. Instead, he failed Cai Que's trust.

Along the way, many people greeted him warmly.

Some people once used officials who were clerks to rule harshly and opposed Cai Que's appointment of Zhang Duan and others.

But it also needs to be seen, just like the Song, Ming and Qing dynasties often used imperial examinations to register officials, but the unsuccessful officials accounted for the majority.

Duan Tianshui was soaking in the river work day and night, almost comparable to the legendary Dayu flood control, and he ate and slept with the people. Not to mention the second-in-command of a large county, even a small town mayor could not do this.

Therefore, this period of Tianshui is deeply loved by these migrant workers.

However, compared with officials who were from orthodox scholars or officials with good family backgrounds, Duan Tianshui finally lacked some reserve. The nice saying is that he lacked some official airs.

With so many civilians working in construction, the government recruits workers or exchanges land for labor to raise the people to do their jobs, so migrant workers have a few activities, so many small vendors, including some inexperienced prostitutes or artists, have also come to the river workers.

A large group of people were around in front, and Duan Tianshui also squeezed over and saw a rap man sitting in the tea shed in the middle talking about storytelling, talking about the war in the Northwest.

The Song Dynasty was weak, and there were great victory in the northwest, so how could it not be exciting?

The special passage that Mr. Rap ​​said was the battle between the Song and Liao dynasties. The Western Xia no longer existed. The target of the Song Dynasty's "conquest" had been replaced by the strongest country, Liao.

So Duan Tianshui also stopped and squeezed with these ordinary people to listen to the gentleman rap.

The clerk beside him couldn't help but smile bitterly, "Our master is so interesting."

But even this clerk was also fascinated.

Otra made up his mind and began to urgently mobilize the three armies. After all, Xingzhou City could not be delayed.

Such a huge military force was quickly learned by Wang Zhang and the others. The two of them used fast horses to communicate and negotiate back and forth, and finally formulated a very strange tactic. At the same time, Wang Ju drew out many cavalry and sneaked back to Qingzhou, sneaked into the front line from Qingzhou, and the materials also moved to the north.

Soon the court received the news, of course, the quarrel was so irresistible.

The three Liao army crossed the Yellow River and rushed to Xiazhou.

The Song army urgently built a military fort in Qiliping. It was originally a township in the northern suburbs of Xiazhou. Now the water and soil in this area have not completely deteriorated, and there is a tributary of Wuding River to irrigate. It has thus become a precious agricultural area in Xixia. To the north is Huangyangping. Although there are no rivers, the ground atmosphere is humid, at least for Nanhetao, it is a rich pasture.

Huangyangping had a flat terrain overall and had no danger to rely on. Time was urgent, so the Song army gave up directly.

The reason why the military fort was built here was that the Liao army could not successfully obtain water.

The Liao Kingdom launched a large number of troops this time, with more than 100,000 soldiers, but they were not entirely soldiers, including servants and civilians. Think about it, there was a large desert in the middle from Heqing Army to Qiliping, and the weather was hot again, and all the water was drunk. Moreover, from Xiazhou to Youzhou, they were severely destroyed by the Song army. The people of Xixia themselves had no food and could not supply the Liao army's food and grass, so the Liao army had to bring a lot of food and grass to come. In this way, the marching speed became slower.

When the Liao army, which was trapped in the crowd and lacked horses arrived, they saw that the Song army had guarded the water source, and they were all jealous. After the three armies fought desperately, the Song army was defeated and fled.

The Liao army once again came to the city of Xiazhou.

There are two favorable places. The people of Xixia in the city support the Liao Kingdom, and the Xiazhou city walls are incomplete.

However, the problem is that even if the people in the city support the Liao army, would they dare to take up weapons and cooperate with the Liao army? Besides, the people in the city are even poorer. Before handing over with the Song Dynasty, they would have washed away all the city, including the iron tools in the people's homes. The grassland is really short of iron.

Nowadays, many poor people are still counting on the Song Dynasty to provide relief.

Although the city wall was incomplete, it was the city wall. When the Liao army crossed the Yellow River, the Song army began to repair the city wall urgently. When it was too late, the fences were built, and the offensive and defensive battle began.

But time has come.

Otra was also robbing this time, and even thought that it was normal for the Song army to resist in the city. If it did not resist, it would be abnormal for the Liao army to easily capture Xiazhou City.

So he divided his troops to Hongzhou City and Youzhou City to accept the two cities, so that the Song army could prevent the Song army from taking the two cities in front of him, so that he would not be able to pose a threat to the Song Dynasty's border in time.

Both sides believed that time had been won. The Song army won time in order to arrange troops and materials smoothly. The Liao army won time in order to occupy the three states before the Song army responded.

And Otra thought he had enough troops.

There are indeed many, almost the same as the troops that Xiao Yanyan went south.

However, if you pay attention to the war history of the Northern Song Dynasty during this period, you will find an interesting phenomenon, that is, the scale of military use in the Three Kingdoms War is getting bigger and bigger.

First, the Northern Song Dynasty and Emperor Taizong of Song made two northern expeditions, one by one, the scale was larger than the other. The second Northern Expedition used 300,000 soldiers and civilians, and then returned with a crushing defeat. Then the Song Dynasty used less and less troops, especially during the reign of Emperor Renzong of Song, even if Dingchuan Village was defeated, there were only tens of thousands of soldiers and horses. When the Zhao Xu Dynasty began to rise, Guo Kui went south to mobilize 300,000 soldiers and civilians. No matter how he explained, Guo Kui did make serious mistakes in this battle. Then, when the five attacks on Xia, the force reached 500,000!

Since the Alliance of Chanyuan, the Liao Kingdom did not fight with the Song Dynasty, but attacked Goryeo and later pacified Jurchens, several times, with an astonishing number of troops, of 500,000 and 700,000!

This result was because the Song and Liao Kingdom were established for a long time and the population increased, so they could obtain sufficient military resources.

Just like in the early Song Dynasty, there were only three million households, so the country had only 300,000 troops, more than 100,000 bans, and more than 100,000 bans. If it were like this now, the number of soldiers and the civilians in the rear reached more than one million. Without mentioning that they could not be raised, the people could not farm and produce.

But there is a country that is very strange, that is, Xixia. Li Yuanhao was so nervous, first Tubo, then Song Dynasty, and then Liao Kingdom. He only mobilized 100,000 troops each time. However, after that, it was a starting point for 100,000 at any time. Maybe one 300,000 will come from time to time! In history, Xixia actually persisted for so long, which is also a miracle.

So it is really not uncommon now to have more than 100,000 troops.

Moreover, the Liao Dynasty's more than 100,000 soldiers were of different natures than those of Xiao Yanyan. Xiao Yanyan also had many semi-militia forces that time, but these semi-militia themselves also had certain combat power and were not very well-behaved. However, the civilians who followed the army this time were real people, and they were not as good as those of the civilians on the front line in Wang Ju's hands.

This is irrelevant. In fact, this is almost the greatest ability of the Liao Kingdom. No matter how many troops are, it is as far as Hetao. The Liao Kingdom's finances will really be unable to bear it.

The most important thing is that the Liao army sent troops too late.

If so many Liao soldiers came to the west in the morning, the Song Dynasty would not dare to divide the troops so easily, which aroused the Xia army's stronger confidence in resistance, then it would be very difficult for the Song army to advance further, and it would allow the coalition forces of the two countries to drill into loopholes at any time, resulting in the Song army's return without success.

Otra also made a fatal mistake, or a fatal mistake made by unintentionally.

Wang Ju successively asked Zhong Shidao and Liu Changzuo's troops to return to Shaanxi Road, and mobilized some cavalry from the Zhongyou Road to sneak towards Yanzhou, Qingzhou, but these three troops still turned back from Lingwu Avenue.

But at first it was not Wang Ju who did this intentionally, but because of the terrain, there was also a road along the ancient Great Wall from the other side of the Jingzhou River in Xixia, and it was a shortcut, directly to Yanzhou.

However, this road is seriously lacking in water. There is a river called Kushui River, also known as Kushui River. When the Mongols occupied this place, they changed their name to Dustu River, which means an oily river, and the water is like oily

In fact, this river is not as wide as the largest part of the river, but it has passed through many salt lake areas. Because of the deterioration of the water and soil, this area has little drought and rain and severe evaporation. Therefore, the river water has less water, high salt and various minerals, and it is water, but it cannot be drunk. However, because of the moisture, the water and grass along the way are rich and lush, and there are also some wells that can be used for a small amount of irrigation and drinking.

If you bring some spare drinking water with you, there will be no problem for the army to walk on this road. There are still some Western Xia troops stationed in Baichi City and Tiemen Pass on this road. The terrain of these barriers is dangerous. As long as the Song army is stopped for three or four days, the Song army will have to withdraw by itself because of drinking water.

There is no need to make such a struggle.

But now this unintentional act has worked, because he was walking on the Lingwu Avenue in the south and because of the battle of Lingzhouchuan, even the Xia army on Tiemen Pass dared not send cavalry to run around casually. The Liao Kingdom did not know about these three withdrawals.

There was another crisis. Mogus brought his troops to Shengwei City. Wang Ju also rushed over in person and asked Mogus to cross the river first. The two talked for a long time. Wang Ju should have satisfied Wang Ju. However, Wang Ju sent a large amount of seized armor, which also satisfies Mogus.

Therefore, the two made another agreement to stop the people from being poor, and Mogus was a little short of chips when he went back this time. Wang Ju promised him one thing: two cities are now built in Juyanhai, and two trenches worth dozens of miles were also required to dig two trenches. It should not be called trenches, but two small canals connecting two seas, and there was insufficient manpower.

Wang Ju made an agreement with Mogus, asking him to take his subordinates to move the Song army out of the Beicheng District, and his subordinates to undertake the construction and use labor to exchange weapons. Then after the autumn, after the construction of the Beicheng City is completed, he will get more than 100,000 pieces of armor.

In addition, Wang Ju first drew some commercial goods from the Western Xia spoils, such as silk, tea, porcelain, and ironware. These were urgently needed by various tribes on the grassland, so he asked him to take them back and use them as capital to bring more cows, horses, sheep, fur tendons and horns. At the same time, Wang Ju ordered a large amount of commercial goods to be transferred from the rear to Juyanhai and traded in Juyanhai.

With weapons and money, Mogus can win over more tribes.

This would make Mogus' future rebellion larger than ever.

But this has nothing to do with the main battlefield for the time being.

Let the Liao army jump to the top, but a strange scene appeared under Xingzhou city.

The Song army was clearly about to flood Xingzhou City. Originally, many Xixia people in the city had gradually lost their fighting spirit under the three-dimensional attack of the Song army. Now seeing this scene, the Song army has officially stopped siege. Anyway, they are preparing to come to Jinshan Temple, why are they wasting arrows and shells?

Moreover, the Song army intends to start camping on some high grounds and sends soldiers to log and organize rafts. Why do we need to make rafts? When the flood comes, the people in Xingzhou City are swimming, and the Song army can stand on the raft and clean up slowly.

Xingzhou was surrounded by water and was not known to the outside world. Although Liang Yibu still did not believe that the Song army could flood Xingzhou city, the morale of the three armies had been disintegrated. It happened to be early July, and the moon was dark and windy in the second half of the night. He sent nearly 10,000 suicide troops out of the camp to attack the Song army camp. However, the night attack was Wang Ju's specialty.

The Xia army successfully arrived in front of the Song camp and was about to enter the Song camp. Suddenly, countless arrows came across the sky, and two more cavalrymen on both sides did not dare to die. They lost thousands of dead bodies, and the remaining Xia army fled back to Xingzhou City in a panic.

In fact, the focus of the battle is not on Xingzhou, but on the east side!

The Liao army successfully accepted Hong You and the other two prefectures, and he also accepted more than 10,000 Xia troops, but there was not much food and grass in the two cities, so he had to order the rear to support some food and grass. But this problem was not too big, and he did not plan to stay for a year or two.

At this moment, a group of Song Dynasty cavalry crossed the newly repaired ancient Great Wall and came to the city of Xiazhou. They cooperated with the Song army in Xiazhou and launched an attack on the Liao army camp. Because the Liao army divided the troops in Hongzhou and Youzhou, the troops were not as strong as the beginning, but the Otra army was well-manned, and there were quite a lot of troops here, so the Song army did not succeed, but the Song army successfully rescued the Song army in Xiazhou.

Otla sighed a little, but because the purpose of the Liao Kingdom's troops this time was to not get too bad at the Song Dynasty, although Otla sighed, he didn't care too much, and he also obtained Xiazhou City and completed the first battle goal.

When the three armies entered Xiazhou, with the city walls to lean on, Otla could transfer more troops to Hongzhou. Below Hongzhou is the Great Wall Ridge, with two Great Walls. The ancient Great Wall on Hongzhou is the main Great Wall. The Baoan Army's Great Wall was only a small section, but both Great Walls were scrapped. This section is called the Great Wall Ridge, which the Song Dynasty and Western Xia each held half. The lower right is the Qingzhou Dingbian Army, which had not been established for a few years, and the right is the Yanzhou City that the Song Dynasty had just occupied this spring.

Otla stared at Yanzhou, the same as the intention at the beginning. No matter how we fought, our army did not enter your Song Dynasty. Is Yanzhou your Song Dynasty from? Xixia praised your Song Dynasty and also to our Liao Kingdom.

However, when the army arrived in Hongzhou, it could pose a threat to Yanzhou and Qingzhou at any time, so as to force the Song Dynasty to retreat.

His nightmare came. If the main force of the Song Dynasty was really all in Hexi, Xixia at this time, it would be as he thought, but not. But the fatal shortcomings of the Liao Kingdom emerged, that is, the main army would be further away from the Heqing Army, Jin Su Army, Ningbianzhou in the rear. What's even more terrible is that he suddenly received a intensive force from Yanzhou, saying that the people in Yanzhou were eagerly looking forward to the arrival of the Liao Kingdom's army, which shows that the people are willing to serve!

After hearing this, Otla was not at ease, so he asked the people of Xixia again that there was indeed such a powerful man and he was also very loyal to Xixia.

What are you waiting for? Otla immediately wrote a rough letter and sent someone to hand it to the Great Wall Ridge. As for when the letter was transferred to Wang Ju, he ignored it, and then personally led the three armies to the city of Yanzhou.

Since he sent troops from Liao territory, it took less than 20 days, and with a large amount of food and supplies, he could actually drift to Yanzhou 900 miles away, and at the same time he took Xiazhou and accepted Hongzhou and Youzhou. The soldiers are so fast! To be continued.

...
Chapter completed!