[This change is counted as yesterday's, and today's three watches are counted as reparations for breaking off. 】

It has been three days since the recapture of the city of Daizhou, and the cleanup of the city is largely completed. After three days of busyness, the Liao captives finally got a rest, and at the same time there was a broth full of large pieces of horse meat

- The Liao army was stationed in the city for many days, leaving behind a lot of filth. At the same time, the slaughtered Han people in the city, the Liao people were hastily thrown into the dry moat outside the city, and only a thin layer of soil was covered. Now that the weather is getting hotter, thousands of corpses have been reburied, and more than a thousand uninjured Liao prisoners have been put to use.

At the same time, several new camps set up at various valley passes were also completed, and the blockade of the Yanmen passes was completed.

Since then, Hangang's main forces have been stationed in Daizhou City from outside the city, and from this day on, Yanmen County, which has been falling for many days, can be said to have been truly recovered.

In another battlefield, Fanzhi County, which is also at the exit of the Flying Fox in the east, the situation is also going well.

After the defeat, the courage of the Liao army was lost, and they had no intention of fighting. When the first batch of foot soldiers, under the protection of the cavalry, began to march towards Fanzhi County, the Liao army stationed in the county immediately chose to retreat and retreated to the bottle-shaped village in the east of the county.

Although among them, the Liao people played a cunning trick, not only retreating in person, but also hiding an ambush in the mountains on the north side, with the calculation of luring the enemy into the shortcoming. However, there were a large number of local people who took refuge in the mountains, and there were a number of scattered officers and soldiers. Therefore, it is logical that this time in the military exploits of the expedition to Hedong, there are two more hundred heads.

After recapturing Fanzhi County in World War I, leaving more than 4,000 soldiers and horses to garrison the county, and blocking the passage for the Liao army to attack through the Flying Fox Road, Han Gang had two choices in front of him.

One is to regain the bottle-shaped village, attack Lingqiu to the east, and make a situation of pinning Nanjing Road, and the other is to continue to the north and attack Xijing Road.

The main road of the Flying Fox is actually a north-south mountain road from Flying Fox County [now Laiyuan] to the north to Lingxian [now Wei County], which can lead to Xijing Datong - from west to east from Fanzhi through Lingqiu to the Flying Fox Road, which is clearly only an extension of the westward direction of the Flying Fox Road, which is called Lingqiu Road more accurately - Puyin is from Feihu County to the east, through Jinpi Pass [Bauhinia Pass] to Yi County, and thus enters Nanjing Road.

The two passages in the Taihang Eight Mountains, plus the Lingqiu Road, all three roads start from Feihu County. In other words, Feihu County is the center of traffic in the northern section of Taihang Mountain.

If Feihu County can be captured, its significance will be far more far-reaching than the capture of Shuozhou.

As far as the current situation is concerned, unless we want this war to continue, even if Shuozhou is occupied, it will not be able to keep it, and it will inevitably have to be returned in negotiations. As for capturing Datong in one go and holding it firmly, there is only a 1 percent chance.

It's not that it will definitely not be able to be attacked, and there may be at least one or two percent of the capture of Datong, but Han Gang doesn't feel that the government and the opposition are ready to destroy Liao, and they don't even have ideas. Without such an awareness, such a military adventure would soon be stopped in the frantic counterattack of the Liao army.

But if it's just Flying Fox County, it's hard to turn it into a full-scale war. Yelu Yixin must know the importance of Feihu County, but the nobles of the army under him are willing to pay too many lives for a pass that is not well-known and is in the middle of the Taihang Mountains? It's hard to say. It's not as good as Datong Mansion, that is the Xijing that everyone in the Liao Kingdom knows, and it can't be discarded just for the face of Da Liao

——For the upper echelons of the Liao State who suppressed tens of millions of foreign races with 230,000 elite soldiers of the Khitan clan, the loss of the border and the fall of a center are completely different meanings. They have already given up Xingling, and of course they can lose Shenwu County and Feihu County, but they can't afford to lose Xijing Datong, and the two prefectures of Shuo and Ying, which will inevitably fall in the south. That would be the end of the entire Xijing Dao, and it would be the prelude to the rebellion of thousands of alien races. No matter how stupid the Khitan nobles are, they all know the significance of Wujing Mansion to the Liao State.

Once it is captured, it will definitely be much easier to keep Feihu County than Datong or even Shuozhou.

It's a pity it's too hard. Han Gang sighed secretly, "It's too difficult. ’

It can be said that it is a little more difficult than capturing Datong Mansion.

Compared with the dozens of miles of road through Yanmen Mountain, from Fanzhi to Lingqiu, and then to the Flying Fox Taihang Mountain Road, which is nearly 300 miles long, the problem of food and grass is basically unsolvable.

Han Gang was unable to ensure the supply of grain and grass for thousands of troops on such a mountain road. If you still want to attack the Nanjing Road of the Liao State, you must open up Puyin from the Flying Fox to Yi County. What's more, there is Yelu Yixin on the other side of the mountain. The resources in the hands of Da Liao Shang's father are not comparable to Xiao Thirteen.

Huang Shang saw Han Gang's gaze staring at one place, and understood his thoughts: "It shouldn't be difficult to capture the bottle-shaped village." Fanzhi County to the east, all the way to the Hutuo River out of the mountain, is a valley more than ten miles wide, and the road is easy to walk. Further into the mountains, attacking the bottle-shaped village only needs to go less than ten miles of mountain roads. If the bottle-shaped village is broken, it is Lingqiu. Even if you may not be able to capture the Flying Fox, it is a great achievement to be able to win the Spirit Valley. If you are lucky, Lingqiu and Flying Fox have hoarded grain and grass, and maybe they can capture Jinpi Pass in one go, pointing directly at Yi County. ”

Han Gang listened to Huang Shang's suggestion, and his eyes did not take his eyes off the map.

The topography of Pingxingguan is better than that of Yanmen, but it is not much simpler. Pingxingguan, Bauhinia Pass, or according to the title at this time - bottle-shaped village, Jinpi Pass, two world-famous dangerous passes, are as daunting as Yanmen.

He said softly: "Don't mention the topography of the bottle-shaped village, as a Song-Liao boundary fort, it will not be so simple to capture this place. ”

Han Gang had never been to Pingxingguan in his previous life or in his life, but he had hundreds of officers and soldiers who had seen the terrain of Pingxingguan with their own eyes, and if he asked, he knew how difficult it was for Lu Dao to capture that pass.

"But now the siege has a more sophisticated weapon! Isn't it your invention? ”

"Dig tunnels and fill them with gunpowder?" Han Gang asked rhetorically, crying and laughing in his heart. Perhaps it was because of habit that the world, including his staff, had a little too much faith in his inventions and ideas in weapons. But Han Gang didn't think that gunpowder blasting could be effective for a pass like the bottle-shaped village, "You can't dig a tunnel under the iron-clad door, can you do it at the bottle-shaped village?" ”

The iron wrapping gate is the gate of Yanmen Pass, located at the top of the pass pass, and is named after the black stone of the east and west mountains such as iron. Of course, it is impossible to dig a tunnel under the iron-clad door, and there are stones underneath. The same is true for Bottle Village. Can't even dig out the tunnel where the gunpowder is placed, how can it be used as a basis for capturing the bottle-shaped village?

Based on the same reasoning, Han Gang was not prepared to attack the mountain passes such as Yanmen and Bottle Shape head-on.

It was extremely difficult to storm the mountain pass head-on, not only for the Liao army, but also for the Song army. No matter which pass you have, the road in front of the pass is basically long and narrow, winding through the mountains. The terrain is rugged and difficult to navigate. At the gates, there won't be enough room for the army to wield, whether it's a bed crossbow or a thunderbolt, there won't be much to place.

"But ......," Huang Shang wanted to say and stopped.

"It's nothing, it's not okay, gunpowder can't work, tunnels can't work, it's not useful at all." Han Gang looked at Huang Sheng with a positive face, "Mian Zhong, don't be anxious!" ”

Gunpowder has not yet been improved, and it is not as powerful as it could be. After experiments, although there is no pressure for gunpowder to blow up the earthen walls of the village, it is almost impossible to pass with heavy barriers such as Yanmen Pass and Bottle-shaped Village. Even the old city walls at ordinary points are difficult to blast through.

"Didn't you read the report of Zhefu Prefecture?" Han Gang added, "It doesn't work, it doesn't work." ”

Although the county seat of Shenwu in Wuzhou Prefecture is a legitimate rush, it has not been rebuilt for 70 years. And Shuozhou Prefecture has Wuzhou in the west, and there is Mayi in the south, and its geographical location is not on the official road from Yanmen to Datong Mansion, and when it comes to city defense, it is not as good as Shenwu County, and it is not as good as Mayi in Yanmen. There had been no good rest on the wall for a hundred years, cracks were all over the wall, and clumps of grass and trees poking their heads out of the cracks could be seen everywhere.

Just yesterday, Zhi Kexing sent back the good news and didn't make Han Gang wait too long. And in the good news, it is also said that the credit of gunpowder is also said. It's just that although there are many good words in the good news because it is Han Gang's proposal, the actual function can only be classified as a psychological offensive against the defenders.

According to the return of the craftsmen arranged by Han Gang, in the blasting. At the root, the base of the wall collapsed, and a crack ran from the base of the wall to the top, but the whole remained intact. It's just that this bombing scared the defenders on this city wall, so that the team led by Zhe Ke dared to enter the city bravely.

"That's just a little too little...... It's only more than 100 pounds. Huang Shang was still arguing.

"How much is that? How many thousand pounds? ”

The original gunpowder that was only 100 catties of raw gunpowder that was sent north and distributed to the Linfu army was indeed far from enough. It's not a dynamite bag for later generations, if there are a few thousand catties, maybe it can really blow up the city wall.

It's just that in this era when firearms have not yet begun to be popularized, it is not easy to find more gunpowder. If you are in the capital, you can also go to the fireworks shop, or find a little material from the workshop of the ordnance supervisor. But in Hedong, it is very difficult.

The goods in Han Gang's hand were all temporarily distributed, less than five hundred catties, except for part of the preliminary experiment, and the rest were sent to Zhekexing.

On the other hand, in Kansai, because of the large-scale arms workshops in Yanzhou and Weizhou—including a series of weapons that use gunpowder like poisonous smoke and fireballs—there are far more reserves of saltpeter and sulfur than in Hedong. Thinking about it, Han Gang couldn't help but be envious.

In addition, on the other hand, there is a series of advanced research on the selection of explosion points and the excavation of tunnels in the blasting technique—although Han Gang doesn't know much about it, he has heard about it in his previous life—which requires time and money to develop, and it can't be done now.

This tactic is just a nascent, and there is no urgency. Han Gang has a clear understanding.

"Let's follow the original plan."

As if following Han Gang's words, the pro-soldiers outside the door reported loudly: "Privy, Bai Yu, the commander of the Yongxing Military Road stationed in the army and horses, is asking to see him outside." ”