Guide to traveling through the Northern Song Dynasty

Generals Li Yanxian, Zhong Yanchong, Zhang Xian, Xiao Heda and others led the army to Huaizhou City.

When the vanguard approached Huaizhou for 20 miles, they suddenly encountered a large group of Dangxiang cavalry. Xiao Heda was the pioneer, and they also looked like Dangxiang cavalry.

The two groups of cavalry shot at each other for a while, and each sent someone back to report the news.

Xiao Heda personally led the army and ran a few dozen steps and asked: "You are holding the flag of Erluo, is the chief of Erluo tribe here?"

A Dangxiang general ran out: "I am Erluo Ayole. I have surrendered to Emperor Zhu, and I advise you to surrender to the Ming Dynasty as soon as possible!"

Xiao Heda was confused. The Dangxiang cavalry from Huaizhou actually claimed to have surrendered to Emperor Zhu?

What the hell?

Did Wang Cunli surrender to the Ming Dynasty in Huaizhou?

Xiao Heda pointed at his flag: "Don't you recognize this flag?"

"How can I recognize Han..." Eluo Ayole suddenly reacted, "Hey, why are you using Chinese characters for the general flag?"

Xiao Heda said: "I am Xiao Heda from Xiazhou."

"You are Li Heda, I was wondering why you look familiar." Eluo Ayole suddenly realized.

Xiao Heda was furious: "Grandpa is Xiao Heda, not Li Heda!"

Eluo Ayole was too lazy to argue: "Yes, yes, I don't care what your last name is. Since you have surrendered to the Ming Dynasty, I have also surrendered to the Ming Dynasty, so we are family."

Xiao Heda asked: "Why did you surrender to the Ming Dynasty too?"

Eluo Ayole explained: "General Yue sent down divine soldiers and conquered Huaizhou in one fell swoop. He has already led his troops to attack Jingzhou. General Li (Li Cunhui) was left in Huaizhou to garrison. We have several tribes, all of which surrendered to General Li to defend Huaizhou."

Many Dangxiang tribes were blocked in the city and knelt down to beg for mercy and became prisoners of Yue Fei.

Some chieftains were smart. They occupied the granary or killed the civil officials before surrendering, which was equivalent to offering their surrender and being reused by Yue Fei.

Yue Fei rested for a day and then led his army south to attack Jingzhou.

However, Li Cunhui, who was a spy, suddenly became a commander of 20,000 to 30,000 soldiers, and all of his men were Tangut soldiers. He stayed in Huaizhou to guard against Richard's killing.

Moreover, Li Cunhui also sent out cavalry to spread the word that the Ming Dynasty would not kill people indiscriminately, and asked the soldiers and civilians who fled in the wild to come back quickly.

He distributed the ownerless livestock and food, as well as the food in the military warehouse, to the soldiers and civilians every day. He also asked officials and military generals to be responsible for the distribution, and successively executed several people who took the opportunity to embezzle, and soon won the hearts of the soldiers and civilians.

Now, the soldiers and civilians who escaped are returning one after another.

On the contrary, in Xingqing Prefecture, the Xixia monarchs and ministers were afraid of the infiltration of spies, so they closed the city gates and did not allow the escaped soldiers and civilians to enter the city.

The news was passed back to Huaizhou. Such a sharp contrast made the Xixia soldiers and civilians feel chilled.

Even the chieftain of the Weiduo clan, a branch of the Weiming clan, one of the eight major Tangut clans, refused to surrender after being captured. After hearing about this, he also wanted to be loyal to Emperor Zhu.

"Which General Yue? Which General Li?" Xiao Heda asked.

Eluo Ayole said: "General Yue Fei, the Protector General of Yue, and General Li Cunhui."

Xiao Heda was afraid of fraud, so he sent his confidant to follow Eluo Ayole to Huaizhou City. After some investigation in the city, he confirmed that it was true.

He then sent soldiers to inform Li Yanxian.

After receiving the letter, Li Yanxian said to the generals with a smile: "Yue Fei went deep into the city alone and captured Huaizhou City, which was heavily defended by 50,000 soldiers."

Zhong Yanchong said in disbelief: "Without siege equipment, civilians and food, how did he capture Huaizhou?"

"Someone from the Military Intelligence Department helped," Li Yanxian said with emotion, "That person is still my old subordinate. He was injured in the battle of Hebei and was declared dead. I didn't expect that he was a spy in Xixia. I even took out some money and asked someone to send it to his wife and children."

Zhang Xian was amazed and said: "These two people have made great contributions!"

Li Yanxian said: "Speed ​​up the march. Huaizhou has been captured by them, and we can just go straight to Xingqing Prefecture. Generals, greater military merits are waiting for us!"

"Advance to Xingqing Prefecture!"

"Advance to Xingqing Prefecture!"

The generals shouted in unison, their blood boiling.

…

Yue Fei brought 6,000 Ming Dynasty cavalrymen, 8,000 surrendered Tangut soldiers as laborers, and all the craftsmen in Huaizhou City, dragging food and grass south with war horses and livestock.

In two days, they arrived outside Jingzhou City.

There were 10,000 defenders here, transferred by Ren Dejing from Lingzhou, specifically to stop Yue Fei's troops.

The Tangut civilians were sent out to row small boats across the moat and shout in many places outside the city: "Huaizhou is gone, Richard Brother and Wang Cunli were annihilated! The 300,000 Ming Dynasty soldiers are besieging Xingqing Prefecture. Do you still want to defend Jingzhou to the death and be buried with the tyrant?"

They put the boats on their heads to block the arrows, and hundreds of people rushed to the city and shouted in turns.

At the beginning, the defenders in the city could shoot arrows, but they all stopped shooting and wanted to listen carefully to see if they had heard it wrong.

The main general of the defenders was Mo Zang Luo, from the Tangut clan Mo Zang - Li Yuanhao's second queen was named Mo Zang.

Seeing that the people in the city were already in a panic, Mei Zang Luo called his generals and said, "Those who are shouting outside the city may be trying to trick us into surrendering. Don't trust one-sided words. Send light cavalry to Xingqing Prefecture and Huaizhou to inquire."

Immediately, a general said, "I just saw someone holding Wang Cunli's flag outside the city. Wang Cunli must have been defeated and lost the city."

Another general said, "There is someone outside the city who claims to be the chief of Tiantian. I am very familiar with Tiantian Shiguang. Although he used a small boat to cover his head, I can recognize his voice. He not only surrendered to the Ming army, but also became the captain of the Ming army's burden (miscellaneous soldiers)."

"And Ye Ma Clan, Ye Ma Zongxun is also outside the city!"

“…”

The generals spoke one after another, making Mo Zang Luo completely desperate.

There was no need to send cavalry to investigate, Huaizhou City must have been destroyed. That meant that Wang Cunli’s army was wiped out, and it was estimated that Brother Richard was also in danger.

It also meant that the Ming army could come from Yanzhou and march 300 miles to Xingqing Prefecture!

They were holding a meeting in the tower, and suddenly heard that the city was quiet, so they all lay on the edge of the city wall to check the situation.

But they saw another small boat coming, and after landing, they were running around and telling the person who was shouting what to do.

Soon, the content of the shouting became concise and clear.

"Kill the commander, surrender to the Ming Dynasty!"

"Kill the commander, surrender to the Ming Dynasty!"

At first, the shouting was not in unison, but gradually became more and more orderly, frightening the commander of the garrison, Mo Zang Luo, to a pale face.

"Don't mess around." Mo Zang Luo retreated quickly, hiding among his personal soldiers with his hand on the hilt of the knife.

The other generals looked at each other in bewilderment. They only brought one or two followers to the meeting, but they could not defeat Mo Zang Luo, who had many personal soldiers present.

Moreover, they did not know how to leave.

Whoever proposed to leave the tower first would be suspected of mobilizing troops to cause chaos, and Mo Zang Luo's personal soldiers would rush up on the spot.

Mo Zang Luo was also embarrassed. He was considering surrendering, but the shouting of "Kill the commander, surrender to the Ming Dynasty" outside the city blocked his way to surrender. He became antagonistic to the generals!

Even if Mo Zang Luo shouted "Long live Emperor Zhu", his generals would take his life.

Because "killing the commander" is a prerequisite for "surrendering to the Ming Dynasty"!

As for those generals, they were also panic-stricken. They could not figure out who was loyal to Xixia and who was surrendering to the Ming Dynasty, and they were afraid that they would be killed if something went wrong.

Yue Fei was stationed outside the moat at this time, smiling at the city wall in the distance. He had asked the craftsmen to cross the river to dismantle the house and collect wood.

Yue Fei's heart was also very dirty, and he directly used the strategy of sowing discord as an open conspiracy.

Sooner or later, there will be internal strife in the city!

After a long stalemate on the tower, Mo Zangluo said: "Everyone stay here, we will eat and live together, so it is convenient to discuss military information at any time. As for commanding operations in various places, just hand it over to your deputy generals."

"The general is right."

The generals agreed one after another, but they were actually detained by Mo Zangluo.

...

Lingzhou City further south.

Deng Chun's army was already several miles away, but only 80,000 people came, and another 50,000 were sent to fight Shunzhou next door.

Ren Dejing had to hold on for at least a month before the water level of the Yellow River could rise. If the levee was opened now, even if the seven armies were flooded, it would not be a big deal for the Ming army.

In a month, could he defend it?

The Ming army came too fast!

A speedboat came from Jingzhou at full speed, it was a messenger sent by Mo Zangluo.

After opening the letter and reading it, Ren Dejing's face suddenly changed drastically. The content was too horrible.

Huaizhou City has been lost, Wang Cunli's army was wiped out, and Brother Richard didn't know about it. Jingzhou was besieged, and Xingqing Prefecture might be besieged...

What the hell is going on?

Ren Dejing wanted to hack Wang Cunli to death.

"Report! The enemy has set up camp several miles away, and the camp stretches for ten miles, and there is no end in sight."

Ren Dejing trembled when he heard it. The city behind him was besieged, and he would also be besieged by tens of thousands of enemy troops.

Surrender?

Ren Dejing didn't dare.

He rebelled against Song and surrendered to Xia, lured and killed half of the civil and military officials in Xi'an Prefecture, and swallowed up their property.

Some relatives of the victims are still serving as officials in the Ming Dynasty, and there are both civil and military officials.

This blood debt cannot be evaded, even if Ren Dejing has the merit of surrendering the city, barely saving his life and even being able to serve as an official. But his enemies will definitely unite and look for every opportunity to avenge their relatives and friends. Ren Dejing will die miserably sooner or later!

Ren Dejing called his brother Ren Degong, who was in charge of food and grass, and said, "We can't defend this place. If we surrender, we will definitely die badly. We have to find a way to escape."

"Third brother and fourth brother, as well as our whole family, are now in Xingqing Prefecture." Ren Degong reminded.

Ren Dejing asked, "Can you still go back to save them?"

In history, Ren Degong was promoted to the prefect of Xingqing Prefecture in Western Xia because of his brother's protection. He was also a powerful corrupt official.

Ren Degong was also cold-blooded and ruthless. He didn't hesitate for long before asking, "How to escape?"

Ren Dejing said, "Take a few confidants and gold and silver, set fire to the city at night, and we will take advantage of the chaos to escape to the southwest. Escape to the Western Regions and seek refuge with Yelu Dashi!"

Ren Degong said, "The Ming army is attacking Liangzhou (Wuwei). Can we get through?"

"Let's escape first," Ren Dejing said, "If we encounter the Ming army, we will claim to be Xixia Han people, get through first and then find an opportunity to escape to the west."

Ren Degong nodded, "It's the only way."

The wealth that the Ren family has embezzled over the years has long been used to bribe ministers.

But Ren Dejing has a large army and can make countless money in a minute. When they suppressed the rebellion last year, they embezzled food and secretly exchanged it for gold and silver.

In order to escape, they actually sent people to burn many granaries and houses.

The city was in chaos. The two brothers took more than a dozen confidants and rolled up several boxes of gold and silver to escape in the chaos.

Deng Chun was in the camp several miles away, preparing to fill the moat tomorrow, but that night he found flames rising from Lingzhou City.

"The spies acted too quickly. I just arrived here and I'm not ready yet." Deng Chun didn't expect the enemy commander to escape. He thought it was the Ming spies in the city who launched the attack in advance.

In fact, the spies planted by the Ming Military Intelligence Department in Lingzhou City were also looking at the fire in confusion at this moment.

I couldn't care less, I had to eat the half-cooked rice, Deng Chun ordered: "All the troops quickly assemble, follow me to capture the strong city!"

...

Recommend the new book of the old author: "America in 1879: Please call me the boss". The story of the protagonist who traveled to the Great America in 1879 and was sold as a piglet to harm the people of the Great America. The old author, the quality is guaranteed.