The next morning, Fanning left the capital under the escort of three thousand cavalrymen and headed for Laizhou.

Laizhou is currently the base of the Great Song Dynasty naval army, with thousands of warships and tens of thousands of naval troops stationed here. After the navy commander Miao successfully committed suicide and died in his country, the emperor Zhao Xu posthumously named him the Prince of Donglai County, rewarded 30,000 taels of silver, and honored his son Miao Ji as an official.

Currently, the naval commander is taken over by the deputy commander Mao Nanwu. Mao Nanwu is about forty years old, with dark skin, strong and burly body, and rich experience in the navy.

He was originally the deputy commander of the Quanzhou naval army. He followed Fan Ning to explore the South China Ocean and led dozens of warships to defeat the Navy of the Three Fo Qi Kingdom. Later, Mao Nanwu participated in the Battle of Baigou and the Battle of Destroying Xixia. He was ordered to establish the Dasong naval base on Sinmi Island, and led the Sinmi Island navy to sink hundreds of warships of the Liao army. He made many military achievements. He earned his merits the year before. After Miao successfully committed suicide and died in his country, Mao Nanwu officially took over the position of the Navy's unified commander.

That morning, Mao Nanwu received news that the Marshal Fanning of the Northern Expedition had arrived in Laizhou, less than twenty miles from the naval base.

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

Soon, a large group of cavalry appeared in the distance, with flags waving and spectacular. A red flag was embroidered with a large "Fan".

In just a moment, the brigade of cavalry slowly approached, and the official wearing a purple robe and a golden crown was the Marshal of the Conquest of the Northern Emperor and King Fanning of Chu.

Mao Nanwu quickly led the generals to step forward and knelt down on one knee, clasped his fists and said, "I am humble to serve Mao Nanwu, and I welcome His Highness the King of Chu!"

Fan Ning turned over and dismounted, helped Mao Nanwu up, and then asked the generals to stand up, and said with a smile: "General Mao, generals, we have not seen each other for a long time. I am deeply pleased to see that you are all serving the country."

Mao Nanwu was originally the deputy commander of Quanzhou, a young military officer from the sixth rank. He was attracted by Fan Ning and promoted step by step. In just ten years, he has now become the third-rank general of Yunhui and the commander of the navy. How could he not be grateful to Fan Ning?

Not only him, but more than half of the other naval generals were promoted by Fan Ning in the War to Pacify Xixia.

At this time, Mao Nanwu was particularly excited when he saw Fan Ning, and his voice was a little choked, "Your Highness can lead the army seriously, which is the blessing of the Song Dynasty and the navy!"

Fan Ning patted him on the shoulder and smiled, "Victory is achieved by you. With you here, it is the blessing of the Song Dynasty and the blessing of the navy!"

Mao Nanwu wanted to say something else, but Fan Ning smiled and said, "If you have any words to go to the navy camp!"

"Yes! Yes! Yes! Your Highness, please follow the Husband into the camp."

Dozens of generals surrounded Fan Ning into the navy camp like stars.

The naval camp is divided into two parts: sea and land. The land camp is slightly smaller, covering an area of ​​only more than 100 hectares, with thousands of large tents and 50,000 soldiers stationed. However, the sea base is extremely vast, with thousands of hectares of sea surface. More than 100,000 wooden stakes were laid, and an extremely huge naval camp was besieged in the city. Thousands of warships of all sizes were moored in the water camp.

There was no freezing in the south of the Bohai Sea, and the waves gently hit the rebuttal, and thousands of ships of all sizes rose and fell slightly on the sea.

Fan Ning stared at the sea for a while and asked, "What's going on with the defeat of Liaohe?"

"Please follow your highness to go to the Central Army's tent, where there are detailed sand tables to perform war."

Fan Ning nodded and followed Mao Nanwu to the central army tent.

Mao Nanwu pointed to a sand table and said, "The crushing defeat in the Liaohe River was the most painful defeat since the establishment of the Song Dynasty. Beizhi specially made a sand table to remember the lesson."

Fan Ning walked forward and saw that the sand table was about one meter long and wide, including the northern part of the Bohai Sea, Liaoyang Prefecture, Liaohe River and the Liaohe River, which was relatively simple to form.

The Liao River is filled with models of warships and leather rafts. The warships are painted in red to indicate burning. The leather rafts are the same as river water, vividly outlining a water battle that falls into the trap of the sea of ​​fire.

Fanning frowned and asked, "Is there no scout on the shore?"

"It was some at first, but the Liao army kept appearing on the shore, and the scouts could no longer go deeper."

"Even the scouts can't go deeper, so the fleet dares to go deeper into the hinterland?"

Fan Ning was obviously a little dissatisfied in his tone. This was a serious violation of the rules of water war. Miao Shunli was experienced and Fan Ning didn't believe it. He didn't even understand this.

Mao Nanwu said helplessly: "We also know that it is dangerous to go deep into the army alone, but the military order is stipulated, requiring us to join the 100,000 army in Liaoyang Prefecture. They marched lightly and only brought some dry food. We must cooperate with the 100,000 army."

After pausing, Mao Nanwu explained: "We also realized that this military order was a bit dangerous, so we specially placed important weapons such as steel crossbows, iron fire and thunder behind, and put food and siege equipment in front. Facts have proved that our decision was correct, and we saved the strategic materials such as steel crossbows, iron fire and thunder from falling into the hands of the Liao people."

Fan Ning walked a few steps behind his hands and asked, "Does the military order you are talking about refer to the military order of Mr. Han or the order of the court?"

Mao Wunan whispered for a while: "It is actually the joint military order of the Emperor and the Privy Council."

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

After all, Han Jiang's prestige is slightly low and not confident enough. Zhao Xu himself also realized this, so he specifically pointed out four words on the order, "full responsibility". It is estimated that Han Jiang would not be able to obtain the maximum command.

"Tell me now, how many warships and soldiers did the navy lose in total?"

"A total of 174 warships were burned, 33 10,000 stone warships, 97 5,000 stone warships, and the others were 3,000 stone warships. More than 8,300 soldiers were killed. Some of them were captured, but we are temporarily listed on the list of deaths. Even if they escaped from the sea of ​​fire, they would probably be difficult to escape the massacre of cavalry on the shore."

Fan Ning was in a very heavy mood. This was the heaviest loss of the establishment of the Navy of the Song Dynasty.

"How is the morale of the army now?"

"It was depressed at first, but after training for a while, it gradually recovered. Especially when I heard that Your Highness's important position as the Grand Marshal has completely recovered."

Fanning then said, "Gather the entire army, I want to say a few words to everyone!"

Mao Wunan was overjoyed. He just hoped that the general would give lectures to the soldiers of the army and boost morale.

‘Dong!Dong!Dong!’

The sound of gathering war drums sounded, and the 40,000 naval troops in the military camp gathered from all directions on the martial arts field. A high platform had been set up on the martial arts field. It was early February, and there was a warm atmosphere in the sea breeze.

The drums stopped, and all 40,000 soldiers had assembled. At this time, Fanning appeared on the platform, and the 40,000 soldiers were in surprise and cheered excitedly.

Fanning smiled and waved his hand, signaling everyone to be quiet. The martial arts field quickly calmed down, and forty thousand pairs of eyes were staring at the coach Fanning.

Fan Ning whispered loudly: "Everyone read it right. I am now serving as the marshal of the Peking University and will lead everyone to attack the Liao Kingdom."

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

Fanning was also infected by the enthusiasm of the soldiers. He waved his hand again, and the soldiers quickly calmed down.

"Although we suffered a crushing defeat a few months ago, many brothers were killed and destroyed many warships, our navy did not hurt. We just fell down on the road of running and got up and continued running. Moreover, after this setback, our navy will run faster and become stronger, because our navy is the most powerful army in the world, and has made great achievements in destroying the Western Xia, and can also be recorded in history in the battle to destroy the Liao Dynasty!"

In mid-March of the second year of Xining, everything revived, the ice and snow melted, and the ice on the river disappeared without a trace. Two hundred Song troops from Sinmi Island arrived on the river outside the Baozhou City at the mouth of the Yalu River. Baozhou City was built on the riverside, and the city gate was only a few dozen steps away from the river.

The Song army's ten thousand stone warships were like giants, and the thirty steel crossbows on the warships fired iron fire thunders into the city at the same time. The iron fire thunders exploded in the city. The explosion sounded earth-shaking, and the smoke of gunpowders filled the city. Thousands of people in the city fled in panic. After half of the three thousand defenders were killed, they also gave up Baozhou.

At the same time, Xuanzhou, which is only ten miles away from Baozhou, was also strongly attacked by the Song navy. The fire arrows were like rain and shot overwhelmingly. A raging fire ignited in the city, and the fire in the entire Xuanzhou city was engulfed.
Chapter completed!