He smiled gently and said, "The martial world is full of dangers."
As soldiers, with the two nations at war, they had naturally cast aside unnecessary notions of benevolence and morality.
Compared to Suzhou and Yuguan, Yingzhou's geographical position was undoubtedly more crucial.
As the saying goes, before the troops move, provisions must be made.
Although the Jurchens had, up to this point, sourced the vast majority of their provisions locally, this was still within Song territory.
To be safe, Wanyan Zongwang had still amassed a large quantity of grain and fodder before heading south.
Ying, Ping, and Luan prefectures formed a triangular distribution, with the three cities mutually supporting each other, making them difficult to attack and easy to defend. They were the ideal supply base on the Jurchens' path southward.
It could be said that this was the Jurchens' prepared fallback position!
To ensure absolute security here, the Jurchens had stationed thirty thousand troops in these three cities. Combined with the original personnel, they had effectively sealed the area.
Yue Fei knew this, and Li Bao also knew it, but at this moment, neither of them paid it any mind.
This time, they had no intention of a head-on confrontation with the Jurchens; they had another plan!
"Are the preparations complete?"
As they were nearing the borders of Yingzhou, Yue Fei once again looked at Xu Qing.
"General, rest assured, everything is ready! This time, we'll make them pay!"
"I don't need to tell you how powerful this thing is. I believe you have a good idea from your previous experiences. I won't waste words. I only have one instruction: be careful, be extremely careful!"
The mixture of gunpowder and white sugar concocted by Han Mo was outrageously potent.
While it couldn't compare to modern high explosives, in this era, it was akin to a divine weapon!
The more it was used, the more Yue Fei felt a sense of awe.
Yingzhou, which was essentially present-day Changli in Hebei, had inherently not fertile land. Coupled with years of war, the people suffered greatly.
According to Yue Fei's earlier intelligence, there had been no rain in Yingzhou for over a month.
Yingzhou was heavily garrisoned, and attacking the city would not be easy. Their objective this time was arson!
It wasn't until the middle of the night, after the first few small teams had landed and cleared the Jurchen sentries along the coast, that Yue Fei led his thousand-strong contingent to disembark silently on a stretch of beach.
"General, there aren't many Jurchen defenders nearby. It seems heaven is on our side this time!"
After the scouting parties had scoured the vicinity, they returned to Yue Fei.
"It's much as I expected. They still think we're somewhere near Suzhou."
With a cold smile, Yue Fei led his soldiers, using the cover of darkness, to silently advance towards the small hills behind Yingzhou.
The terrain of Yingzhou was complex, with numerous hills and mountains. The original construction of Yingzhou city had been deliberately built against the mountainside for convenience.
Half of this small hill had been excavated during the construction of Yingzhou city.
The remaining half would now conveniently serve Yue Fei!
The terrain within Yingzhou city sloped from west to east. Building granaries naturally required a higher elevation.
Even the Jurchens themselves hadn't realized that the location they chose for their granaries was precisely fifteen hundred paces from the hilltop outside the city!
Under normal circumstances, ordinary trebuchets would pose no threat. However, if the enemy positioned their trebuchets on a hilltop, the situation would be entirely different!
"General, this is it! Look, that's their granary!"
After they had silently ascended the hill, Xu Qing looked at Yue Fei with excitement.
"Tell the men to hurry and set up the equipment!"
Taking his waterskin and taking a large gulp, Yue Fei also felt a surge of excitement.
It was still deep night, and they were cloaked in darkness. As long as they didn't make too much noise, the Jurchens' grain would be burning before they even realized where the fire was coming from!
"Yes, sir!"
Xu Qing responded and immediately led dozens of soldiers to get to work.
The greatest advantage of the new trebuchets designed by Han Mo, compared to traditional ones, was their ease of disassembly.
Every component of these machines was divided into hundreds of parts, large and small.
To assemble them in the shortest possible time, Han Mo and his team had put in considerable effort.
At each connection point, the required parts were marked with diagrams using the Thousand Character Classic and the Yin-Yang system.
After dozens of disassemblies and reassemblies on the ship, ordinary soldiers could quickly assemble a pile of scattered parts into a standard trebuchet.
Of course, the greatest benefit of this design wasn't just easy disassembly, but also the ability to easily combine parts from several damaged trebuchets to form a functional one in case of damage.
After all, one never knew what they might encounter at sea. Away from supply bases, they could only rely on themselves.
"General, the equipment is ready!"
After a tense half-hour wait, more than a dozen trebuchets were lined up before Yue Fei.
"Since everything is ready, I'll leave this to you! I have only one request: throw these things into their granaries!"
As Yue Fei spoke, he pointed to nearly five hundred gunpowder packets carried by the soldiers.
"Rest assured, General!"
"Remember, you have only a quarter of an hour. After a quarter of an hour, regardless of success or failure, we must retreat!"
"Yes, sir!"
After all, this was Jurchen territory. Yue Fei's mission was to sow terror, not to engage in a pitched battle with the Jurchens. Yue Fei's objective was clear.
"We will begin our withdrawal after a quarter of an hour. After two quarters of an hour, we will set fire to the mountain. Ensure that none of these devices are left to the Jurchens!"
"Yes, sir!"
After reiterating his instructions, Yue Fei turned to inspect the preparations being made by the remaining soldiers.
Although there hadn't been rain for over a month, this was still the seaside. Igniting a fire that could not be stopped in a short time, without endangering themselves, was a delicate task!
"Whizz—"
With a whirring sound, a gunpowder packet with a lit fuse flew in a long arc, landing directly in Yingzhou city at the foot of the mountain.
"Boom—"