Fenghou

"What's the attitude of God?"

"The emperor is a little afraid of them, and seems to want to compromise and allow them to transport their wealth out. I don't agree. They should use these to support the army, instead of taking them away when Xixia is in crisis, and finally hand them over to Jin. They It’s really naive to actually believe in Jin Guo’s promise, Jin Guo has already sharpened the sheep-killing knife and is waiting for them!”

"The humble official just said that this matter has both disadvantages and advantages. The prince let them go, but the road is not safe. If their team of transporting wealth encounters horse bandits, will they want to cry without tears?"

"Horse bandits?"

Brother Li Cha's eyes narrowed, of course he understood Han Feng's implication, although there were no horse bandits and thieves along the way, he could create it himself!

"I'm afraid that the emperor will not forgive me if he finds out. He warned me last time."

Han Feng lowered his voice and said: "As long as the hands and feet are cleaned up, no one will be left alive. They thought that the property was sent to Montenegro, and then the people and property were hidden. There is no evidence. Who would dare to say that the prince did it? Maybe it was Cao Baohui who did it? Or maybe it was the Jurchens, maybe the Uyghurs, isn’t that the Uyghur pastoral area? It just so happens that the prince went to Xiping Mansion for inspection, so what does this matter have to do with the prince?”

"Sure enough!"

Brother Li Cha immediately asked for his second son, Li Hanzhong, to explain to him so and so, and ordered him to lead two thousand of his own soldiers to go north overnight, rush to the north and set up a net, and wait for the lamb to cast him.

Early the next morning, Brother Li Cha played to the Emperor of Heaven. He was worried that the Song Army would attack ahead of time, and it would take a month to inspect and improve the defenses of the cities. .

Brother Li Cha then led an army of [-] to leave Xingqing Mansion, and headed for the first stop: Xiping Mansion.

Chapter 676

Fifty li to the north from Xingqing Mansion is Dingzhou, and there are basically no cities in Dingzhou to the north. It takes more than 10 miles to go to Heishan, which is the Hetao area at the top of the Yellow River. During the Han Dynasty, it was developed on a large scale by the Central Plains Dynasty. The population reached several [-] people at the time, and then fell silent. During the Tang Dynasty, three surrendered cities were built, and military reclamation was briefly resumed. At the end of the Tang Dynasty, it became a pasture for the Hu people. .

At present, the Heishan area is the northernmost territory of Xixia, which is mainly used to exile prisoners. In addition, after Xixia destroyed the Ganzhou Uighurs, some Uighurs were also resettled here and became Xixia's sheep slaves, raising cattle and sheep on behalf of Xixia. Three thousand garrisons were in charge of guarding them.

It is precisely because Montenegro is far away from the hinterland of Xixia that the Xixia dignitaries decided to use it as a transit point for their wealth. They first transferred their wealth to Montenegro and then watched the situation develop. If the situation improves and the Song army withdraws from Xixia, they will return to Xingqing Mansion , but if the general situation is over, they will quickly transfer their wealth to Datong Mansion.

For several days in a row, the wealth transfer of the rich and powerful began one after another. Some were carried by camels, some by boats, and some by leather rafts. Brother Li Cha went to Xiping Mansion. Emperor Li Ganshun did not dare to offend the public. Just turn a blind eye and close your eyes, let them go.

This morning, a scout cavalry from the Song Army came rushing in from a distance. Except for the Yellow River, the surrounding deserted Gobi Desert, and the remnants of Mount Henan in the distance, they rushed to a sandy place and saw the ground The corpses were mutilated by the pack of wolves. These people were buried in the sand not long after they were massacred, and all of them were pulled out by the pack of wolves who smelled blood.

The deputy commander of the scouts, Liu Xiang, shook his head. This was the seventh batch of victims they encountered. They all died in the same way, and their heads were brutally beheaded.

"Pile them up and burn them all!"

The soldiers worked together to pile up the corpses, burn them with a fire, and then bury them deeply, which is also to prevent the epidemic.

The scout cavalry turned around and rushed north...

The mountains in this area belong to the remnants of the Henan Mountains. They are not high, but they have many branches and are relatively broken. In a large valley, Liu Qiong and Tang Qian led [-] cavalry to station here.

Another valley twenty miles away from them is the lair of Brother Li Cha's second son Li Hanzhong and his subordinates. The cavalry of the Song Army knew Li Hanzhong's every move, but Li Hanzhong didn't know the existence of the Song Army.

In the evening, Liu Xiang returned to the canyon, cupped his fists to Liu Qiong and said, "Report, I searched for a day today and found seven murdered teams."

Liu Qiong nodded, "They returned to the canyon very early today. In terms of numbers, they have already exceeded a hundred transport teams. The top ten families have all been killed. There should be no big fish behind. You have worked hard today, go first have a rest!"

Liu Xiang saluted and stepped back.

After another two hours, as the night gradually darkened, a scout rushed back to report, "General Qi, they are leaving!"

Liu Qiong was waiting for this news, he immediately cheered up, and quickly asked: "How many people?"

"A total of 300 people brought [-] camels, all loaded with heavy cargo."

With three thousand camels, Liu Qiong and Tang Qian looked at each other in shock, how much wealth would there be?

But now they don't have time to think about it. When the other party sets out at night, it must be Li Hanzhong who brought his confidantes to hide the wealth. Of course, it is impossible to bring all 2000 people, only the confidantes of his confidants.

Liu Qiong didn't know how many teams would come from Xingqing Mansion, but Li Hanzhong and the others knew that in just seven days, a total of [-] batches of goods were massacred and thousands of people were killed. Li Hanzhong finally stopped.

Liu Qiong and Tang Qian immediately divided their troops into two groups. Tang Qian led [-] cavalry to intercept and kill Li Hanzhong, while Liu Qiong led [-] cavalry to clean up the remaining [-] soldiers in the canyon.

Under the darkness of night, [-] cavalry left the canyon without a sound. They were afraid that the sound of horseshoes would startle each other, so instead of galloping, they slowed down and walked twenty miles away...

In an unknown canyon, Li Hanzhong led [-] confidants and led [-] camels full of large boxes to walk slowly. They had already discovered a cave two miles deep before, and they needed to collect all the wealth they had intercepted. Stack them in the cave, and then seal the cave.

They don't know how much wealth is in the big box carried by these three thousand camels.

But now the Xixia country is impoverished and the people are poor, where is the wealth accumulated for a hundred years?It goes without saying that they were all taken into the pockets of more than 100 powerful families in Xixia.

This time they are planning to transport to Montenegro, of course not all the wealth, a large amount of copper coins is not easy to transport, and there are also bulky items, such as wood, sheepskin, utensils, etc., which cannot be transported away.

What can be transported away are small items of high value such as gold, silver, jewelry, jade, silk, spices, etc., but it is these small items that need [-] camels to transport.

There are sharp cliffs on both sides, and the night is dark, quite gloomy and depressing. The team finally arrived in front of the cave, and a few soldiers went in with torches and walked around, and came out and said: "Everything is normal!"

Li Hanzhong immediately ordered, "Unload all the cargo!"

Each camel bears more than 300 catties of cargo, 300 camels, and only [-] people unload the cargo. One can imagine the difficulty. , The soldiers were so tired that they collapsed on the ground, unable to move any more.

"Whoa!"

A large box accidentally fell to the ground, the box shattered, and hundreds of silver ingots rolled out of it.

"Useless bastard!"

Li Hanzhong was so angry that he cursed and rushed forward to beat him with a whip.

Just then, a cold arrow 'whoosh! The shot came at such a fast speed that Li Hanzhong had no defenses and couldn't dodge in time. He was shot in the throat by an arrow, and with a muffled grunt, he fell on his back.

Immediately afterwards, random arrows were fired in the dark, shooting at more than 200 soldiers sitting at the entrance of the cave to rest. Thousands of arrows were shot like a storm. , was shot like a hedgehog in a blink of an eye, but dozens of soldiers still fled into the cave.

Three thousand Song soldiers came from all directions. In order not to disturb the other party, their horses stayed outside the canyon. The remaining dozens of people were unable to resist and were all killed. The army searched out all the remaining ones and executed them.

After disposing of the corpse, Song Jun put the big wooden box back on the camel and led the camel away.

……

The battle in the Tibetan canyon soon ended. The Song army blocked the mouth of the canyon and shot and killed more than 700 Xixia soldiers who were trying to break out. The remaining [-] Xixia soldiers hid in the valley and confronted the Song army.

The Song army cut down a large number of thorns. This kind of thorns is called black wolf thorn, which is a local specialty. When it is burned, it will produce a lot of poisonous smoke. The Xixia soldiers were all overwhelmed by the thick smoke.

At dawn, the Song army began to enter the valley and executed all the Xixia soldiers who had not yet died.

At this time, it doesn't matter whether there are still powerful families transporting wealth to Montenegro. The 100 Song Army cavalry took [-] camels and [-] large ships and went south quickly, taking away the hope of more than [-] Xixia dignitaries.

……

In the big camp in Mingsha County, thousands of craftsmen are rushing to make simple siege ladders and chariots overnight.

The simple siege ladder is made of fir that Chen Qing likes. This kind of fir is straight and strong, and two iron hooks are installed on the front end. Although it is not as elegant as the standard siege ladder, it is enough for use.

Then began to build chariots, which are actually four-wheeled human carts, two feet long and eight feet wide. It is thick enough to reach the opponent's bow and arrow, and if a false top is added, it can even withstand the impact of throwing boulders.

Each cart can hold 30 people, and then more than [-] soldiers are used as cover, hiding around the cart, and are responsible for pushing the cart at the same time.

The reason why this kind of cart is called a chariot is of course that it is used on the battlefield. First, it is used to transport soldiers directly to the city. And small trebuchets are placed on the cart, so the top of the chariot can be lifted. For the oil fire cabinet, even only one opening needs to be exposed.

At night, the lights in the camp are still brightly lit, and the craftsmen are still rushing to make them overnight. They have already made [-] siege ladders, which basically meet the needs. It is enough to make twenty vehicles. Of course, in addition to making chariots, it also needs to be installed and debugged. This is another batch of craftsmen.

Tomorrow is the deadline, and no matter how tired the craftsmen are, they must complete it overnight. The leader of the craftsmen shouted to everyone: "Everyone has worked hard all night, and you can rest tomorrow morning."

Chapter 677 Ling Zhou

Early the next morning, three hundred simple siege ladders and sixty chariots were neatly placed on the school grounds.

The craftsmen completed the task assigned by Chen Qing in only three days. Half of the sixty chariots were equipped with small trebuchets, which can throw a [-]-jin fire oil tank fifty steps away. , but it needs to fix the base to the chariot before it can be thrown.

The other half of the chariot is used to transport the fierce oil fire cabinet. The fierce oil fire cabinet does not need to be installed or fixed. It can be used directly on the chariot.

The principle of the fierce oil fire cabinet is the water gun used by children nowadays, but it is very finely made, all of which are made of cooked copper. It consists of two parts, the fire pipe and the fire cabinet. They are connected by copper pipes, of course they are not guns. It is not the kind of seamless copper tube, but a copper tube rolled out of a red-hot copper sheet.

The fire pipe is a water gun. Once the piston is pumped, the fire oil in the fire cabinet will be sucked into the fire pipe through the copper pipe, and then the piston will be pushed hard to push the fire oil out. The spray distance is also fifty steps. Of course, this This flamethrower is not a child's water gun. It needs a lot of thrust, and usually three soldiers are required to cooperate. Its role is to accurately refuel. kerosene.

After breakfast, the 15 troops of the Song Army started to set off, and the chariots and siege ladders were also loaded onto the big ship. The 15 troops stretched for twenty miles and marched north.

This time in the north attack, Chen Qing wanted to seize Xiping Mansion and enter the core abdomen of Xixia.

He said before that the attack was delayed because the siege weapons were not in place. Of course, it was just an excuse. The real reason is that the war of destroying the country needs to be treated with caution, careful observation, and step-by-step testing. It must not be rushed.

Although the Song Army planted spies in the Xingqing Mansion before, Xixia still guarded against military secrets very closely. Chen Qing didn't know how much war potential Xixia still had, how many more troops could they recruit?It wasn't until hundreds of manors were wiped out, and Xixia's [-] elite army was defeated, that Chen Qing truly felt the opponent's decline. He even let his army destroy manors one after another, but was unable to fight back.

Chen Qing decided to test the other side further and seize Xiping Mansion. If the other party didn't respond yet, then he would move northward, capture Shunzhou, Jingzhou, Huaizhou, Dingzhou step by step, and finally encircle Xingqing Mansion.

At noon the next day, the army going north met Liu Qiong and Tang Qian who were going south. Hearing that the two had intercepted a wealth of [-] camels, Chen Qing was overjoyed. He spent so much money, food and resources to attack Xixia. Jin Guo's wealth was for nothing, and that would make him extremely annoyed.

He immediately credited each of them with a great contribution. Tang Qian stayed behind and went north with the army, while Liu Qiong continued to escort [-] camels to Liying County. All the materials and money seized by the Song Army were stored in Yingli County.

Liu Qiong continued to go south, while Chen Qing ordered the army to rest on the spot for an hour.

Tang Qian stepped forward quickly, knelt down on one knee and gave a military salute, "See Dutong!"

Chen Qing waved his hand, asked him to stand up, and said with a smile, "General Tang has worked hard this time."

"Reporting to Dutong, we are just waiting for work with leisure, and Brother Li Cha's subordinates are the ones who work hard."

Chen Qing laughed, and asked again: "These you went south, what changes did you find?"

Tang Qian shook his head, "We were quite nervous going south this time, lest we meet the main force of the Xixia army, but until today, we have not encountered a single Xixia person, let alone a Xixia soldier, and we even sent a scout cavalry to the manors in Hetao After walking around, we can see what it looked like when we left, and what it looks like now, there is no change, which means that no Xixia soldiers have come.”

Chen Qing pondered for a moment and asked, "Why are there so few Xixia people?"

Gao Ding smiled and said: "This problem can only be returned. So far, the areas we have attacked are all agricultural areas, and the Xixia people either live in the city or in pastoral areas, so it is normal not to meet them."

Chen Qing said happily: "It makes sense, everyone hurry up and rest, and strive to arrive at Xiping Mansion tonight."

……

Xiping Mansion, also known as Lingzhou, is the southernmost city on the Xixia Hetao Plain, and it is also the south gate of the capital Xingqing Mansion. If Xiping Mansion falls, Xingqing Mansion will be completely passive.

Brother Li Cha is very aware of this point. After inspecting Xiping Mansion a few days ago, he thought that the [-] troops in Xiping Mansion were too small, so he added another [-] troops to Xiping Mansion, but the increase was the White Armored Army, which is already very good. It is impossible for Xixia to put elite soldiers in Xiping Mansion.

The defender of Xiping Mansion is called Tuoba Jing, who is about 40 years old. He once followed Li Liangfu to attack Ganquan Fort.

Tuoba Jing is a very conservative general, even if the Song Army passed by outside the city gate of Xiping Mansion, he would not take the initiative to attack, this point is appreciated by Brother Li Cha, Tuoba Jing's conservativeness prevents him from being attacked by the Song Army A strategy to lure troops.

At this time, what is more important than defending the city?

As night fell quietly, at this time, Tuoba Jing got the news from the spies that the main force of the Song Army, more than [-] people, was found [-] li away to the south, heading towards Xiping Mansion in mighty force.

This news shocked Tuoba Jing, the main force of the Song Army had only been going south for a few days, why did it come again?

What's more terrible is that the main force of the Song army seems to be coming for Xiping Mansion this time.

Tuobajing urgently ordered to ring the alarm bell, and all the troops took their positions. In the past two days, Tuobajing searched the whole city, barely collecting [-] sets of old armor and [-] spears. Putting on the armor, the soldiers are also uniformly equipped, and the military looks a little more orderly.

Half of the soldiers went to the city to defend, and the other half of the Baijia Army was responsible for carrying the supplies for the city defense.

A few miles away, the long dragon of torches coming from the north gradually converged, turning into a sea of ​​torches, Tuoba Jing was really nervous to the extreme, the main force of the Song Army really came to attack Xiping Mansion.

At this time, the torches were gradually extinguished, and the 15 troops were resting on the spot, eating dry food and drinking water. It was still early, just at Xushi, that is, at eight o'clock in the evening, Chen Qing ordered the army to rest for three hours, and they could sleep first. Get up in the middle of the night to attack the city.

Surrounded by dozens of generals, Chen Qing came forward to check Xiping City. Although he had obtained information before, he never checked it personally.

The moonlight is good tonight, there are no dark clouds, the sky is clear, and a full moon swims in the dark blue sky, making the city very clear.

Like Yingli County, Xingqing Prefecture City has no moat. The city wall is about two feet and five feet high, and there are four towers on the top of the city with a circumference of more than twenty miles.

There were Xixia soldiers standing on the top of the city, and it could be seen that they were very nervous and ready for battle.

The Song army already has a lot of experience in attacking the city, but the Xixia army has insufficient experience in defending the city. It is no wonder that this is the first time that the Song army has come to the city since the founding of the Xixia state, and it has been more than [-] years since the last Song Xia war In [-], experienced soldiers were either old or died in the civil strife. The young soldiers recruited now have no experience in defending the city.

Chen Qing pointed at the gate of the city with his whip, turned his head and said to everyone: "If we attack the gate with a battering ram, what do you think?"

Everyone agreed, "Since there is no moat, it is the time when the battering ram is showing its talents, and the humble official agrees."

"Is there no objection?"

At this moment, Tang Qian raised his hand, expressing his objection.

Chen Qing glanced at him, and said calmly, "General Tang, tell me the reason for your objection!"

Chapter 678 Chariot

Tang Qian bowed and said: "Qi Dutong, when we captured Yingli County, we used a battering ram to break open the city gate. The battering ram we brought today is still the same, but I think that the Xixia army will definitely learn a lesson. , They will definitely block the city gate with boulders, even if we break through the city gate, we will not be able to break through the boulder."

Liu Cui immediately retorted: "General Tang's reason is not sufficient. If they really learn their lesson, even if it is too late to dig the moat, they will dig a ditch and make a suspension bridge with fir. It can be done, and since they didn’t make this move, it means they haven’t learned their lesson.”

Tang Qian still shook his head, "This is the thinking of our Han people, but the other party is from Xixia, and their thinking is different from ours, just like we have swept up more than 100 manors. If it were us, we would definitely send troops after the other party evacuated To clean up, but the other party simply ignores it, as if nothing happened. Maybe the other party thinks it is not important at all and there is no need to look at it, but we cannot understand it.

In the same way, we think that digging moats and installing suspension bridges are the protection, but if the other party thinks that moats and suspension bridges are useless, blocking the door is the best way? "

Gao Ding clasped his fists and said: "Dutong, General Tang's idea is still a bit reasonable. Since Xixia itself has no tradition of digging moats, it means that they think moats and suspension bridges are useless. As far as I know, Liangzhou City has a moat because it is It was built by the Han people, but there is no moat in Ganzhou city, it was built by the Uyghurs, the two sides have different understandings, Xixia is more inclined to the Uyghurs.”

Liu Cui was a little dissatisfied and said: "That doesn't prove that the other party will block the door with huge stones, and the report will be unified. The humble job suggests a two-pronged approach, not only hitting the city gate, but also attacking the city's head."

Chen Qing nodded, "According to Liu Tongzhi's opinion, attack Nancheng with a two-pronged approach!"

……