Guide to traveling through the Northern Song Dynasty

To the east of Huaizhou City, there is the Yellow River Ferry.

There are boats at the ferry, and you can escape to the east bank of the Yellow River.

If you take a boat to the south, you will find Jingzhou City dozens of miles away.

In Jingzhou City, we continued to take a boat south to Lingzhou, which was heavily defended by Ren Dejing. It was about to be surrounded by Deng Chun's 130,000 troops!

To the south?

Or heading east?

Bin Cunli, who had escaped from the city, didn't think much and took a boat east to cross the Yellow River to find Brother Richard.

Although Brother Richard was his political opponent, at this time, Bin Cunli still chose to believe in Brother Richard's ability. Because he feels that Ren Dejing from the south is a bad character!

Bin Cunli is the biological father of the current Queen of Xixia.

Ren Dejing is the biological father of the former Queen of Xixia.

Although their daughters are about the same age, they are still a generation apart, and they fight more fiercely with relatives of the royal family.

Historically, Xiao Heda rebelled.

Bin Cunli jumped out first to lead the troops to put down the rebellion, hoping to gain more power through his military exploits, but was defeated again and again by Xiao Heda.

This gave Ren Dejing a chance. Ren Dejing took over the military power and quickly eliminated Xiao Heda. From then on, he gradually became a powerful official in Xixia.

Soldiers and civilians swarmed out from the east city gate and rushed to the ferry to seize the ships. Nong Cunli led a group of soldiers, rode on horseback and slashed with swords, killing everyone in the way, and finally grabbed two boats and ran away.

The soldiers nearby followed suit and killed civilians indiscriminately and snatched away all the remaining ships.

The soldiers and civilians, who had no boats to sit on, could only escape along the river bank. They were afraid that Yue Fei would carry out a massacre, so they ran all the way to save their lives, even without taking any food with them. It was estimated that many of them would starve to death on the way.

After crossing the river, Wang Cunli headed straight to the northeast, where Brother Richard was hiding his troops.

Passing through the narrow farming zone, there is a large grassland with rich water and grass ahead.

By dusk, Nong Cunli was tired and hungry.

Fortunately, when we crossed the Yellow River, we had some food on the boat and filled our water bags with Yellow River water.

After eating something, it was completely dark, so I lay down on the grass and fell asleep. He didn't sleep last night, and now he can fall asleep while sitting on the horse.

The next day, we continued riding wildly.

The vegetation gradually became shorter and thinner, and by the afternoon, it was already half grassland and half desert. After passing this semi-desert zone, the grassland ahead is slightly better, but only the local tribes know that desertification is getting worse year by year, and the sand is eating up the grassland bit by bit.

This has a lot to do with overgrazing, but the real reason is that the climate is getting colder and the 400 mm equivalent precipitation line continues to move south.

Desertification began to intensify in the middle and late Tang Dynasty. There is a clear record in "New Book of Tang" that a horrific sandstorm in the second year of Changqing buried the famous Tongwan City wall.

"Woooooooo~~~"

"Stop!"

The horn sounded, and hundreds of light horses grazing came around.

This is Brother Richard's hiding place. There is a semi-desert area on the outside, but you can still graze inside. Further north is the Mu Us Desert.

Thousands of livestock were temporarily raised here as food for Richard's cavalry.

Wang Cunli revealed his identity and asked, "Where is King Jin?"

The general who was left to guard the livestock said, "His Royal Highness the King of Jin has led his troops to attack Yanzhou."

"Hurry up and send a few people to report that Huaizhou City is gone." Heng Cunli said anxiously.

As soon as these words came out, the hundreds of cavalrymen left behind became even more anxious. Their families were all over there in Huaizhou!

The general was so angry that he pulled Nong Cunli off his horse, grabbed Neng Cunli by the lapel of his clothes and angrily shouted: "You guys have the nerve to come looking for us? Since you commanded the army, you have never won a single battle. You only know how to lead us." Escape. I fled from Longzhou to Yanzhou, and then followed you to Huaizhou. King Jin finally led us to counterattack, but you lost the huge city of Huaizhou!"

Hundreds of cavalrymen all dismounted and surrounded Zong Cunli and his soldiers.

"Kill him!" someone roared.

"Kill! Kill! Kill!"

More and more Xixia cavalry shouted.

Tong Cunli was frightened and begged for mercy: "Don't kill me. I am the head of the country and my daughter is the queen... Daxia has not been defeated yet, Daxia has not been defeated yet. As long as the King of Jin rushes to attack Yanzhou, the enemy's army will be deprived of food." ! Don’t kill me, you won’t be happy if you kill me…”

Just when everyone was arguing whether he should be killed or not, a strong wind suddenly blew.

The wind became stronger and stronger, blowing up countless amounts of sand and dust.

"The sandstorm is coming. Hurry into Muliang and drive the livestock in!"

The crowd threw down the gift and drove the animals into the tent.

Tens of miles to the south, in a semi-desert area, Li Yanxian's army also stopped marching. The wind and sand there were smaller, but still uncomfortable, so many people stopped and set up tents to take shelter.

…

Farther away in Yanzhou, Yao Pingzhong was hiding in the city with his troops.

When Wang Cunli built a wall to clear the country, he tore off several sections of the Yanzhou city wall.

This dilapidated city wall has not been repaired for decades. The outer wall has been exposed to wind, rain and sun, and has already begun to peel off automatically. The craftsmen hammered the iron drills along the rammed earth layer like stone, and then smashed the iron drills vertically to destroy the city wall.

The gaps in the several sections of the city wall that were torn away were two to three hundred meters wide in total.

This is also the reason for Brother Richard to attack Yanzhou City!

If the Yanzhou city wall was intact, he would not dare to lead his army to kill.

Brother Richard has already found out that Li Yanxian has led his generals and elites to march towards Huaizhou, three hundred miles away. There are not many Ming troops left in Yanzhou City.

The wind and sand were blowing bigger and bigger, which made the Xixia soldiers feel a little uncomfortable.

Brother Richard ordered to temporarily stop the march, called all the chiefs and said: "This is the blessing of God and Buddha. The strong sandstorms are blowing to cover us. The enemy in Yanzhou must be unprepared. We can easily recapture the city. Tell all these words to the soldiers, tear off your sleeves and wet them, cover the mouths and noses of the soldiers and horses, and rest for a while. We will go straight to Yanzhou!"

Brother Richard's words made sense. This sandstorm was indeed beneficial to them, so the morale of the 20,000 Xixia cavalry was greatly boosted.

More than ten miles away from Yanzhou City, Brother Richard stopped and waited, and then rushed to the city when it was completely dark.

In the city, a large area of ​​houses were burned to ruins, which was also a good thing done by Wang Cunli before he left.

The remaining wood on the ruins had been carried to the gap in the city wall by the civilians and piled up in a mess. The rammed earth blocks of the city wall that had been stripped off were also carried away and stacked with wood to form a very simple fortification to prevent a large number of Xixia cavalry from rushing in.

Wang De's troops under Yao Pingzhong must have been withdrawn by Li Yanxian, and some other troops were also withdrawn.

At this moment, there were two thousand cavalry, six thousand infantry, and more than a thousand civilians in Yanzhou City.

Both soldiers and civilians took turns to sleep.

And they did not wear armor during the day, because they could detect the enemy from a distance and had enough time to put on armor to defend against the enemy. At night, they had to wear armor to rest and be ready to fight at any time.

In a room, twenty or thirty civilians were lying down to rest.

Just rest, not sleep, they had already slept during the day.

"Hey, brother, where is your hometown?" Yang Danian asked.

Niu Fu replied, "Weinan."

Yang Danian said, "Weinan is far away, how could they be recruited to Yansui as laborers?"

Niu Fu said, "How should I know? Most of the laborers in my village went to Hehuang and Huaide."

"Life must be much easier there," Yang Danian said enviously.

Niu Fu smiled and said, "It's not bad. If the Zhu family takes over the throne, it will be more promising than the Zhao family. Can you grow wheat here?"

Yang Danian said, "Why grow wheat? There will be no harvest if there is drought. We grow millet there, which is very drought-resistant. We can always harvest a few grains even if it doesn't rain. Do you grow wheat there?"

Niu Fu said, "Dry fields are mostly planted with wheat, and paddy fields can also grow rice."

Yang Danian said, "Don't be afraid of you laughing at me. It was the drought a few years ago that I ate rice for the first time. I heard that it was the Hanzhong rice that the government transported to the disaster relief. It tastes very good, better than white flour steamed buns."

A civilian next to him laughed, "Yang Er, don't brag. How can you eat white flour steamed buns?"

"Why can't your grandfather eat white flour steamed buns?" Yang Danian said angrily, "I have eaten it several times and I'm tired of it. Brother Niu, don't listen to his nonsense. I have eaten a lot of good things. I have also eaten the cornmeal over there. "

Niu Fu said: "Corn cobs are delicious only when they are tender. They can be roasted or boiled, and the children are very happy. They are not delicious when they are old. Corn paste is oily and can't satisfy the hunger of tuberculosis. "

Yang Danian asked: "What do you think the tender corn cobs taste like?"

Niu Fu smiled and said: "Sweet, like eating honey."

Yang Danian couldn't help swallowing his saliva: "If I have time, I will also get two tender corn cobs to eat."

"Thanks to the emperor, sweet potato leaves are also delicious," Niu Fu said, "If you grow a few acres of sweet potatoes, you don't have to worry about having no vegetables to eat for most of the year. The tender leaves are eaten by people, and the old leaves are given to animals. It is much more refreshing than the bean leaves."

Soybean leaves have always been regarded as vegetables by the Chinese.

Especially the lower-class civilians, picking bean leaves to cook porridge, but it's a pity that the hairy taste is not good.

Now that we have sweet potatoes, sweet potato leaves are plentiful and cheap, and have become the favorite vegetable of poor families. Old sweet potato vines and leaves can also be used to feed livestock.

Yang Danian began to imagine the taste of sweet potatoes and sweet potato leaves, thinking that they must be delicious, and he couldn't help swallowing his saliva as he thought about it.

"Woo woo woo woo ~"

"Dang dang dang ~"

The horn sounded outside the city, and the gong sounded on the top of the city.

The gong sounded inside the city, and a garrison officer rushed out of the house and shouted to the civilians: "Enemy attack! Pick up your weapons and come out quickly!"

Yang Danian and his fellow villagers stood up quickly and walked out of the house with guns in great agility.

They belonged to the people of the outer town. All men under the age of 50 had to train during the slack season to guard against the Xixia crossing the border and looting at any time.

If Yang Danian was ten years younger, he would definitely be a soldier now.

Even if he was just a baojia militia, Yang Danian had his own weapons and armor, which were the standard leather armor, standard long spear and standard waist knife issued by the Commanding General.

Niu Fu seemed a little flustered. His hometown was in Weinan, far from the Ming-Xia border, and he had never practiced before.

However, Richard, who was outside the city, was discovered by the Ming army scouts and immediately led his troops to charge at full speed.

Twenty thousand Xixia cavalry rushed to the gaps in the city walls.

Because there were too many obstacles in the gaps, the Xixia cavalry dismounted and turned into infantry to cross the obstacles and enter the city.